Power of Bonds
by D.stortion
Summary: He pushes his friends away in fear of hurting them. She is rejected by her people for they are terrified of her powers. Yet united they stand against all odds to save the very people they're so far away from. Sonic and Blaze. Alone together.
1. Lonely Will Come

**Hello there, I'm just starting this fic because I was hit by inspiration many times. And also because I'm still not happy how the plot in generations was so... lacky. Not only that, but Sonic's friends not doing anything but just staying there watching you in the hub world was the most annoying thing. So, basically, I'm writing how I think Generations should have been, the romance excluded of course. I only added romance because I'm such a huge fanboy of Sonaze, except I don't want it to be the love-at-first-sight-whatever kind of fic, I want to be completely in character for this couple, a love that will build up over adventures, and that will start at the friendship stage(which already started in the rush series, be aware that I didn't play colors DS to see how Blaze was in those, even if not playable, but I don't think I should care about 06 since, time reset thing.). **

**This story will have a very slow start, whether it be romance wise for the couple(s) or scenario wise for the main plot, you've been warned.  
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><p><em>Lonely Will Come<em>

It was dark, not the usual dark where you could see something. No, it was completely dark, like no light had ever touched this place. And within this darkness, a blue hedgehog wandered, unsure of his steps.

With an anxious look on his face and a small amount of sweat dropping from his rather long blue quills, the hedgehog maintained his pace.

"Where am I? One second I was asleep and the next I wake up here, can't see a thing either so it wouldn't be a good idea to run." he sighed, his ears dropping a bit, disappointed to not be able to start his favorite activity. "Maybe I got trapped by Eggman? Nah, he wouldn't attack me while I sleep, otherwise he would have done that long ago... Mayb- What the, a newspaper?" he spotted a glowing flying paper right above him, falling slowly towards the black ground. He caught it and tried to read it, but for some reason everything was blurred.

"Weird, can't make out a single letter, it's all blurred." The hedgehog thought for a second, a finger on his chin as he remembered something. "Hmm... Wait, blurred? Tails told me about something similar yesterday..."

Suddenly, a young voice rang all over the place, the blue hedgehog instantly recognized it.

"Hey Sonic, did I ever tell you about dreams? In some dreams, you might be able to control yourself. You won't be able to control anything around you since it's your subconscious doing that, some people can but it's very rare to be able to. Apparently if you try to read anything, it will be blurred or you won't manage to recognize the letters. Pretty interest- Hey stop snoring!"

Sonic chuckled. "I wasn't really sleeping, just wanted to tease you a bit. Man, what would I do without you lil' bro?" he smiled "Alright, now that I know it's not something life threatening, might as well jog a bit." Sonic threw away the newspaper and began his "jog", which consisted of breaking the sound barrier. For some reason, he couldn't feel any wind at all like he felt while running in real life, it was his dream certainly, but it still bothered him a lot. It felt wrong, really wrong. But that didn't stop Sonic from running, in fact it excited him a bit, what kind of challenge was his subconscious going to throw at him? He smirked, thinking of the possibilities.

Sonic noticed a gleam in the distance, giving him a feeling of déjà vu for some strange reason. Before he could even begin to ponder about the feeling, a sudden rush of wind blew from the luminous source, caressing the hedgehog's body rather than harming it and making him warmer. The light then exploded, the hedgehog was forced to close his eyes to avoid being blind and only few seconds later he was able to open them. Standing before him was no longer an unending corridor of darkness, but something completely different.

"Wow..." was all he could say in front of this breath-taking view.

Instead, he was in an endless field full of beautiful flowers of every colors, petals being carried by a soft breeze with a bright blue sky, the sun smiling at him... quite literally.

"Woah, now that's creepy." he said, looking at the sun. The sun's smile instantly turned into a frown, which made Sonic take a step back. "I really hope this guy here won't try to crush me like that weird moon with a face. From what game was that anyway?" The sun sticked out his tongue at the hedgehog, who snickered in answer. "Oh well, who cares!" A path then materialized itself in front of Sonic, a straight path with no flowers to step on which made Sonic feel better.

Even if it was a dream, he wouldn't like to stomp on all those pretty flowers, especially when there were no giant robots, monsters or demons chasing him. He smirked and broke once again the sound barrier while following the path. He could feel the wind caress his face at high speed, like he was used to. Right now he didn't care about anything else than running, that was what he was made for. His whole reason to live was to run faster and faster, no matter where he was, in reality, fiction books, crazy spaceships, alien territories or even dreams now and he absolutely loved the feeling.

As fun as running in a straight line was, he still liked it better when there were loops or even robots to bounce off, he was starting to wonder when his subconcious would finally let him have more fun just as he somehow found himself right under a giant tree. A lilac cat stood there, motionless, her gaze set on the horizon. "Blaze? What is she doing here? At least it's not Amy, she'd turn this dream into a nightmare!" Sonic ranted, moving toward Blaze.

Just as he was about the place his hand on her shoulder, the world he was in shattered like glass just as he felt an enormous amount of power flowing through him. He was now airborne in his super form. He looked around and saw that he was in some sort of distorted area where all he could see were random colors fading into each other and Blaze in her burning form in front of him, Burning Blaze as he would call her.

He remembered that time, right after their first encounter and when she learned to use the power of the Sol Emeralds. It had also been a really sad moment for both of them and Cream as they didn't know they would meet Blaze again later. It was the moment when Sonic shook her hand, and once again, both of them were going to get separated. Once again, Sonic held on her hand, like last time. He knew they would meet again. He knew they would still be friends. Yet he didn't want to let her slip, his gut feeling told him to not let her go or that something bad would happen. He couldn't last longer as they separated, but this time, she didn't fall into her own dimension like he had seen last time. What he saw was a giant Eggman Nega smirking, suddenly grabbing Burning Blaze as she struggled to get free. Sonic couldn't do a thing as he was being sucked back to his own dimension, all he could do was watch and try to yell yet no sound came out of his throat.

"Blaze!" Sonic suddenly yelled, falling from the roof he was sleeping on, head first into the ground.

"Ow, stupid dream." he said, rubbing his head as he got up, _'I hope Tails didn't hear me fall from his roof right now.' _he thought _'He worked all day on some of his "toys"'_ he continued, referring to most of Tails' machines. "He fell on his bed like a chunk of metal, I'm sure he di-"

"Sonic, are you alright?" a young and sleepy voice said, followed by a yawn.

Sonic bit his lip, he didn't want to wake up his little brother that needed a well deserved rest from his exhausting day of work. He quickly made his way to the front door, opening it before Tails reached the doorknob. Putting on his usual smirk, he stood in front of Tails. "Sorry lil' bro, just had a bad dream that made me fall off the roof, but don't worry, I'm as fine as always!"

Tails' ears perked up when he heard the words "bad dream". "Want to talk about your dream, Sonic?" Tails offered.

"I told you to not worry, I'm fine." Sonic answered.

Tails immediately said "Are you sure? You yelled Blaze's name very loudly." with a worried look on his face.

"Don't worry, it was just a nightmare. Anyway you should better go back to sleep, you worked hard all day."

Tails hesitated for a few seconds before nodding, walking back to his room. "Alright, we'll talk about it later then Sonic, after I get some sleep. I'm a bit worried about you." He said with a smile before entering his bedroom and falling like a log on his bed, fast asleep.

"Seems like the fastest thing alive wasn't fast enough to say no to his little brother." Sonic chuckled, making fun of himself. He yawned and made his way upstairs where Tails' guest bedroom, mostly used for Sonic, was. "Thankfully, I'm not dirty from falling to the ground, even if it still hurt my handsome face." he jumped into the comfortable bed, making sure to fall asleep on his belly to not pierce the bed with his quills. Before completely drifting off into sleep again, Sonic thought about the lilac cat one last time _'What was she doing in my dream? I don't dream often about anything else than chilli dogs. Nega Egghead won't get her that easily anyway, she's a tough one to fight.' _Even if Sonic was sure she could take care of an army of robots by herself, he couldn't help but be a bit worried about her.

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><p>In a different dimension, on an island isolated far away from civilization, was a large and rather old-looking castle where only one person lived. Mostly spending her time in the large room in the center of it, the lilac cat stood there, arms crossed and eyes closed as if she was sleeping. Behind her was a large pillar, seven rectangular stones of different colors lodged in it, a small glow coming from each of them. The name of that cat was Blaze, the princess of her own dimension and a pyrokinesist feared by her people. She is the guardian of those jewels named Sol Emeralds, protecting them from any thieves, pirates or the usual fat and egg shaped scientist she always fought. The Sol Emeralds had unlimited power, and as such, if they were to fall into the wrong hands then hell would be unleashed upon earth which is why Blaze was sent by the Queen of her own dimension, her mother, to protect the powerful stones.<p>

At first, no real threats came since she easily defeated each of her foes, which mainly consisted of pirates that only wanted the gems, thinking they could make a lot of profit from selling them. They usually ran away after she displayed a tiny bit of her power. But then came a real threat, the mad scientist calling himself Dr. Eggman Nega, that could create terrifying robots, each bigger and stronger than the last one. The mad doctor also occasionally used living animals to power up his robots by using them as the main source of energy, which usually failed, or replaced some parts of their bodies with robotic parts to be able to control them and make them smarter than his usual robots, which usually succeeded if the subject didn't die during the modifications. Those had always been rumors she had heard from others as what she had fought up to now had only been robots only made of wires and metal, although she knew that the doctor was definitely capable of using living beings as experiments.

Blaze was disgusted by Nega's way of using people without even caring a bit about them, and she swore to always stop him from doing his evil deeds.

The room was completely silent, and Blaze could only meditate. She thought about what had happened before and her two adventures with a particular blue hedgehog. At first, she just found herself in his dimension without even knowing who he was, and after meeting Cream the Rabbit, Blaze's first real friend, always telling her that Sonic could help her and that they could beat Eggman if they worked together.

Sonic this, Sonic that, it just angered Blaze more and more until she met him and fought him at the same time to release her frustration that had built up during her travels in his dimension. She was surprised that he could keep up with her in a fight. It ended in a draw as they both started to chase the Eggmen after becoming friends. In the end, she had to go back to her own dimension, as she promised to Sonic that they would meet again, even if she didn't want to go yet.

Cream and Sonic were her only real friends, or at least the two she considered as her friends at that time. She then thought about her next adventure with Sonic, this time with his best friend Tails as well as a raccoon named Marine that they ended up meeting later on. She tried hard to befriend the people of her kingdom but they still rejected her for her power over fire and it wasn't exactly easy since she was royalty, too. In the end, Eggman Nega came to make trouble and somehow spread the Sol Emeralds around one of her dimension's sea, where people were clueless about royalty, and were way too laid back to even think about it. It would have almost been like vacations if it wasn't for the guard sent by the queen following her everywhere, reporting almost every movements she made to the ruler of the land.

Almost, because she personally threatened the guard to not report about Sonic and Tails. He promised he wouldn't say a word about them, fearing the princess and the rumors about her mercilessly roasting people if they didn't follow her orders. Of course, that wasn't true, Blaze didn't care much about those rumors anyway. She was used to them since she was a child. Death threats, lies, kids running away, people mocking her behind her back. But, she wasn't helpless of course. She mastered her power surprisingly quickly so most bullies were beaten easily, whether kid or adult and through hard work and talent, became one of the strongest individual of her kingdom.

She threw away most of her emotions after understanding they wouldn't help her in this world. She became a feared person throughout the lands, a princess despised by her mother, put in an old castle to keep seven magical gems and be named Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, which was just a really bad excuse to get rid of her.

Blaze shook her head, _'I shouldn't remind myself of such things, the past is the past.' _she thought as she sighed. She felt lonely, it had been such a long time since she talked to Cream, Sonic or even Tails. Marine still came to the old castle, what Blaze called home, more often than the cat thought was reasonable. She appreciated the effort the raccoon put in to come here nearly every day but having only a 10 year old constantly talking about pirate related story wasn't the best person to talk to. She still felt lonely, one of the emotion she had discarded long ago. She craved for company, for discussion with people she could trust. Especially Sonic, because he is as powerful as her and had even taught her how to use the power of the Sol Emeralds.

But he wasn't feared, he was actually recognized as someone people could always count on by everyone she met. She was a bit jealous that he was a hero and she was a monster, a freak as they would call her.

The worst part is that there was nothing she could do about it, no matter how hard she had tried, she would end up being rejected.

She sometimes would think long and hard about the similarities of their dimensions: they both protected their world, they both had each a set of seven emeralds, they both were very strong, they both fought villains and a mad scientist, both very similar in each dimensions, having similar names as well as near identical physical appearence and the same wish to dominate the world. The thing that bugged Blaze was that the one in her dimension was named Nega. Did it mean that her world was the bad one? When she was in the other dimension, nobody feared her for her powers even after she recklessly showed them. Then again, only a few individuals in that world were aware of her powers and nearly all of them were Sonic's friends or the blue blur himself.

A loud sound interrupted her thoughts, a sound she was almost used to. Metal stomping on the ground heavily, followed by a soft whirr. She prepared herself for a battle, fire already burning on her fists. She waited a few seconds before the source of the sound appeared. Glowing red eyes appeared in the dark as the robot slowly came to the light, right in front of Blaze. It was a rather tall robot, about five meters taller than Blaze. It had a cannon that replaced its right hand, shoulder pads with spikes on them, his feet had spikes under them and both of his legs had 2 wheels inside, same for the arms. The main body was rectangular and the head was covered by a helmet with two spikes coming out of it, like horns. Behind the metal monster was a round machine hovering with the mad scientist of her world, Eggman Nega, inside of it, wearing an evil smirk on his face.

"Begone, Nega, or I will have to make this painful." said very coldly Blaze, watching closely the menacing robot, waiting for any suspicious movement before making a move.

Nega's smirk grew even wider "Hello to you too, dear princess. You don't seem very welcoming today." he said, carefully caressing his great white mustache "But no matter, I am sure you know why me and my small creation are there today."

Blaze exactly knew why: the Sol Emeralds. Her eyes didn't waver from the robot as she answered the mad scientist. "Over my dead body!"

"I wouldn't have had it any other way my dear! Crush her, Nega Hunter." The robot didn't even have time to process his master's words that he was already knocked into a wall by a fierce kick from the lilac cat, who started then spinning into a small tornado of fire and charged right at the robot that was still down and the lights from his eyes were dying down, as if the damages it had received had been heavy. Just as the tornado of fire was going to hit the robot, its eyes lit up as it suddenly got up by back flipping, standing right next to the fire tornado and hit Blaze with the side of its canon, sending her crash into a wall and making the whole castle shake.

Blaze, injured, tried to ignore the pain all over her body. Nega's robots weren't usually that smart, that robot had just set up a trap by playing near dead and the cat had completely fallen for it. She would have thought that Nega was just getting better at making robots if she didn't hear a suspicious sound right before she was hit.

_'Was that a very loud and fast heart beat? … Is it alive? No, it can't be.' _She was about to attack once again but stopped, remembering the Sol Emeralds were right next to her. "I might as well finish this quickly, I don't want my home to be destroyed." Blaze said, the sol emeralds spinning around her faster and faster, power entering her body. Her transformation was almost complete until Nega shouted to his robot, an evil smile making its way on his face.

"Now! Grab her!"

Blaze didn't have time to move out of the way since her transformation was still going, the robot's huge hand caught her easily as she struggled. Blaze finally turned into her Burning form and forcefully got out of the robot's grip, destroying it as blood splattered everywhere, making the robot yell in pain which froze Blaze for a second in total shock. She never had hurt anyone that badly before, the only thing she had ever destroyed were Nega's mindless minions, full of wires and metal.

That second was all Nega needed to make his plan work. Taking out a remote hidden in his hover pod and pushing a button, eight smalls floating disks hovered near Blaze, trapping her in a yellow cube. Coming back to reality, Blaze tried to get out of the cube, charging into it with full force, yet to no avail.

"What did you do?!" she yelled, panicking since she finally understood why Nega came here, out in plain sight. It was a trap, he had wanted to force her to use the Sol Emeralds since the very beginning.

"Heh heh heh, just a little trick I learned from my counterpart, princess. Now to extract the power out of you!" he pushed another button on the same remote as two huge golden disks slowly came to Blaze's front and back. Blaze tried hitting the cube harder, even tried to melt it, but she was still stuck, sweating a lot, working her brain out to find a way to destroy this prison. Her eyes widened when she saw how close the two disks were as their center began to glow.

"This is it! The day I'll finally create Eggmanland! Nobody will stop me! Noboooo...dyyyy-"

Time started to slow down as Nega's speech was approaching its end. The doctor was moving in slow motion and so were the disks. Blaze didn't understand what was happening, she couldn't use her power to cause that kind of effect, she could move freely in her cage through, compared to everything alive surrounding her and the scientist. A small and dark dot began to form in front of her. The sluggish moving golden disks were just about to activate as Blaze put her arms in front of her as a last attempt to protect herself.

Suddenly, the dot widened in an instant, sucking the golden disks first then Nega, his robot and the trapped princess into the void. Blaze, being the only one that could move freely, looked around when she was in the distorted space. Both Nega and his monster had disappeared from her sights right as she entered it. The golden disks were also nowhere to be seen, which made Blaze sigh in relief. She was still trapped, but she actually felt safer now, being protected by an indestructible shield. There wasn't much to see here, she could make out some numbers floating far away, some sort of transparent corridor to her left while colors around her changed from purple to black to purple again.

Her prison wandered aimlessly for ten minutes as nothing new showed up. Blaze was surprised to still be in her burning form, as it should have ended a while ago. She sighed and decided to try and get some sleep as she had nothing else to do. She didn't really care about this place as long as the Sol Emeralds were with her, it was alright, she would eventually find a way home. Closing her eyes, she waited for her ride to end as she drifted into sleep.

It wasn't long until her prison was shaking madly. She quickly opened her eyes, ready for a fight, until she saw what caused her prison to move so much. In front of her was a giant monster made of smoke, a face where blue light came from the mouth and eyes, with four massive arms, one of them having caught Blaze's prison, actually protecting her from any harm. The monster tried to crush the yellow cube with his two arms, Blaze flinched a bit as she feared the worst, but no matter how much strength it used to squash the box it stayed in perfect shape. She was surprised that the cube could endure that much pressure.

The beast suddenly roared out of frustration and put one of his hands in the air. It opened a hole, similar to the one that stole her from her castle. It then threw with incredible brute strength Blaze into the hole, not even having time to prepare herself. She disappeared into the opening, being able to do nothing. Blaze's pride forbade her to scream as she just watched what was in front of her: another hole, this time showing a deep blue sky with clouds. Her prison was starting to disappear slowly, the disks not being able to follow the cube, that probably already broke the sound barrier because of the throw, anymore. _'I'm not even sure if it's good or bad that I'm starting to get free now!' _she thought.

The box completely disappeared just as Blaze was sucked in the hole. The next thing she knew, she was above the clouds, falling, her fear of heights taking over her pride as she screamed.


	2. How Egg-cellent Is Your Name

_How Egg-cellent Is Your Name_

Inside one of Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik's many bases, a mad scientist with an IQ of over 300 wanting to take over the world to shape it into a giant amusement park, a loud voice boomed through one of the corridors. That voice came from Robotnik's counterpart from another dimension: Eggman Nega.

"...dyy! Hahahaha! And now, to finish you off, dear princess!... Huh? She's gone!"

The white mustached man looked around, a confused look on his face. He heard a grunt of pain coming from his right side. Turning around, he found his own creation staring at the wall in front of him, his arm completely torn. "Right, I forgot about you. Regenerate your arm now Nega Hunter and tell me exactly what happened after we managed to trap the cat." said Nega. The beast simply nodded. A small light came out of the beast's shoulder, slowly growing and taking the shape and colors of the exact same covered in a metal armor arm he had before. While his arm regenerated, the Nega Hunter began to speak in a monotonous voice.

"After we successfully trapped Blaze The Cat, master said those exact words: This is it. The day I'll finally create Eggman land. Nobody will stop me. Nobody. Before you could finish saying nobody, we were here. No teleporting devices were used. Does not compute."

Scratching his head, Nega searched through his brain how, when and why this happened. Not finding an answer, he decided to ask his creation more details.

"How much time passed from when I said "nobody" and when we were transported here?" the scientist asked it.

"...None. We were instantly transported here. Error, error."

"Hmm..." it was a first for Eggman Nega, not finding the answer of his question through either his super brain or his latest robot. "I still don't understand... Well, staying here won't help me find out. Let's go Nega Hunter." the beast nodded once again, catching up with the hover pod that was already going down the corridor. It then walked in front of the scientist, checking the walls and floor just in case there were traps.

Suddenly, before Nega Hunter had time to check the ceiling, alarms went off.

"Hmph, if anyone else other than the blue pest and the cat think they can take on my masterpiece, they will be in for a surprise. Nega Hunter, prepare for battle."

"Affirmative, arm has been fully regenerated. Battle mode engaged." the monster confirmed, pointing his canon in front of him, toward the end of the corridor.

Many heavy footsteps could be heard, metal scratching on metal. Red egg shaped robots leaped out of the dark corridor and were instantly taken out by Nega Hunter's canon. With a roar, the beast leaped on the oncoming robots, destroying them with his canonless arm. Eggman Nega already recognized the robots and wasn't actually paying attention to the mess his creation was doing. He understood that he was back in his counterpart's dimension. _'Does this mean that the cat is also_ _here?…' _The man thought.

"What is going on here?! Who would dare intrude MY base and destroy MY robots!" boomed an angry voice from the end of the corridor.

"Settle down Nega Hunter and don't attack unless I tell you so, he's probably an ally." Nega Hunter simply nodded at his master's order. They waited a bit before seeing a round man wearing red clothes, glasses and glove, with a brown moustache in an egg shaped hover pod, similar to Eggman Nega's one.

"Sonic! I shoul hav- wait Nega? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in your own dimension?" a look of confusion appeared on the doctor's face, waiting for his counterpart's answer.

"Well you see..."

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><p>After around 20 minutes explaining his plan, how close he was to destroy Blaze and the unexplainable event that happened, Nega was sitting on a chair in Robotnik's main control room, eating a healthy sandwich full of cheese, salad, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. The room was large, filled with computers, screens and robots constantly working.<p>

"I didn't know the genius and close to being ruler of the world scientist never ate anything else than... sandwiches." Eggman Nega stated, looking at Robotnik eating his own sandwich while working on blueprints at the same time.

"Do you think I have time to sit and eat while that blue pest is outside, probably breaking my troops?"

"I can understand Ivo, but to use our genius to its fullest, we must not be stressed. Remember that we're both human, we need to take into account our mental state too."

"I'll just have to turn myself into a machine later then."

"Not a really wise choice but I'd certainly like to see that."

Robotnik turned around, staring at the only other mad scientist in the room. "We'll worry about that later... About what happened to you, I also thought about it. Are you absolutely sure that you were transported here instantly?"

Nega nodded. "If you want, my masterpiece can confirm it. Nega Hunter, answer my dear friend's question."

"Affirmative, instant transportation happened. Impossible situation happened."

The red egg shaped man nodded. "Then I believe I have the answer. Take a look at this screen." taking a remote out of his pocket with many buttons on it and pushing one of them, the screen lit up, showing a big dark cloud that looked like a monster, blue light glowing out of holes forming a face. "After my last def- erm, battle against Sonic, my scanners showed up this monster in space, in an incomplete form. It caught my interest and I bought it back with me to study it. That monster is actually capable of bending time, and probably space too, to his will. I am sure that it bought you here."

Nega facepalmed after hearing the explanation. "Not only it was your monster that made my absolutely perfect plan fail, but it's just another of those ancient god of destruction abomination that's going to betray you? I'm disappointed Ivo, I thought you learned from your past mistakes."

The good doctor simply smirked before answering. "You'll be in for a surprise when you meet it. This time, it won't betray me. It shows me gratitude for the upgrades I gave him."

Nega raised an eyebrow, was Robotnik telling him that this monster actually had feelings, nonetheless feelings of gratitude? Either he had gone completely insane or that was actually the truth. Leaving his chair to wander around the room aimlessly, Nega thought long and hard while Robotnik turned around to work again on his blueprints.

_'If it's the latter then... there's a possibility for us to control it. Still, I should be careful, I certainly do not want to mess around with this creature if it reveals itself uncontrollable.'_

A few minutes of complete silence between the two egg-shaped men passed before the one with the white mustache finally talked. "I'm still doubting your words, Ivo. But if what you say is true then we might be able to actually take down that annoying duo once and for all." he said, referring to Sonic and Blaze. "Tell me all about your plan, I want us to start working on it as soon as possible."

Robotnik smirked. Having yourself from another dimension can prove to be especially useful. After all, it's not everyday that he meets somebody as smart and evil as he is, maybe even more evil than himself. On the other hand, he didn't have to worry about Nega betraying him, they both had their own dimension they wanted to conquer, thus both would have their own world once they get rid of the annoyances. "I will. But first," Robotnik glanced at the creature standing at Nega's side "I want to know what is that… thing you have come with. Nega Hunter was it? He seems to be a very capable fighting machine. An advanced one as well."

It was Nega's turn to smirk. "As expected from my dimensional counterpart, you have good eyes when it comes to anything robot related. After my last failu- erm, succession of difficult fights against that blasted cat over the Sol Emeralds, and after learning of your recent failures in bringing down the blue pest using whatever crazy old beast you managed to get your hands on, I decided that relying on ancient weaponry and creatures was not the best option."

Nega caressed his moustache, his smirk getting even wider. "I decided I'd go for something more… modern. Thanks to the report you've sent me from some of your old battles, I learned multiple interesting things. The most interesting reports were about that Sonic clone you made out of only metal and wires and that biological weapon, Project Shadow was it?"

Robotnik nodded, raising an eyebrow. "What's your point Nega?"

Nega sat back on his chair, taking a bite of his sandwich before speaking again.

"My point is, I learned from your mistakes. You know I have a thing for biology, unlike you. Your Sonic replica was a good try, but a robot cannot defeat or reproduct the instincts of an animal flawlessly, even with perfect programation. On the other hand, though I can't blame you for your grandfather's creation, Shadow was very powerful, enough to defeat Sonic and probably Blaze. But you couldn't manage to control him completely, which is why Sonic is still alive today and Project Shadow is running free. Because he was one-hundred percent biological, and already had a good amount of knowledge before you got to him, so unless you managed to brainwash him completely, there's no way you would be able to control him. That wouldn't let you manipulate his instincts though, just his brain. That is why, I decided I'd mix those two creation, take only the good and throw out the bad. You've got in front of you my first weapon that lived amongst those cats before I caught him."

Robotnik approached Nega Hunter, carefully looking at him from every possible angle. "I know you were fond of experiment done on live specimens, but to think you'd manage to get this far... This is some very impressive work. Seeing how big it is though, I'm sure you gave him more than a little muscle upgrades. Since you told me about how important instincts were and how controlling them was very hard to do, how does this creature work?"

"Simple, I captured the strongest and smartest animal I found, shattered his mind and reprogrammed his whole body. This includes his brain and anything in it. It's impossible to delete memories as the brain can't forget, but I can push them far enough so that they won't ever resurface. I remade him like a computer, chose carefully the hardware and put in the best softwares. His instincts have been programmed like a wild animal. Technically he considers me as one of his parent, which is why he listens to everything I say and will protect me at all costs. Instincts influence every single choices anybody makes. This is what I'd call the most advanced mind manipulation of our worlds." Nega finished, a smile plastered across his face, his pride obviously showing.

Robotnik had been following everything his counterpart had said, everything felt clear, except for one little detail. "What do you mean by "shattered his mind"?..." He asked his counterpart, already imagining a thousand of terrible scenarios. He knew he was much more cruel than him.

"Oh you know Ivo, torture and all of that stuff! Everything your soft heart can't handle." Nega answered nonchalantly. "A much more effective alternative to a simple brainwash, it was a little tough but in the end I did manage to make that animal submit completely."

Robotnik felt like puking and glared at his fellow doctor. "The line between a genius and an insane man is very thin, Nega. You'd do well to remember that." Robotnik turned back to his computer and started to tap on the keyboard again. "Enough talk about your creation, let us move to my plan. For now, I'm going to tame and upgrade this creature. We're going to keep a low profile for a while as I'm unsure of how long it will take. I have to explore his powers more before we move on to the next steps. I have made a surprising discovery recently though, it seems that this beast cannot be powered up with chaos emeralds. I also used what was leftover of the sol energy I kept from your dimension, it had no effect as well."

Nega looked surprised, usually every being could be affected by either chaos or sol energy, but this one monster wasn't?

Robotnik continued "A small fact but still an interesting one. This means we don't have to search for the emeralds, unless you need to give your Hunter some more power?"

"Or to avoid at least the hedgehog to go super. Blaze has already every Sol Emeralds and using chaos energy on a being from my dimension would destroy them." Robotnik nodded. Avoiding at least one superform would be good, but knowing his blue rival, he probably already has a bunch of them gathered.

"I'll consider it, but since we have to lay low, we shouldn't go straight ahead for them. I'll also let you search for them as I have to take care of the time beast."

"Don't we have to hurry? I thought having both sets of emeralds in one world was enough to merge and destroy both dimensions completely in under two weeks." Nega answered, he wasn't sure if his counterpart had completely forgotten the subject.

To his surprise, Robotnik smirked.

"Don't worry about time or dimensions, the beast can keep both worlds stable for me. We have all the time in the world to prepare for our plan. You can stay here, I've got a large spare room I built just in case. One of my robot will lead you there. I'll be staying there to observe the beast, I will tell you about the next steps later on."

"Very well Ivo. Thank you for the room." Nega was curious about whatever Robotnik was planning next, he decided that he will wait patiently to get his answers. They do have all the time in the world, after all.


	3. Red Hot Chilli Sauce

_Red Hot Chilli Sauce_

Near some of the farthest cliffs at seaside hills was a house, a very plain looking one. A red roof and aside from the brown front door, the rest of the house was painted in white. Even though it was big, it was behind some of the bigger hills at a very precise angle, hiding it completely from view on the front side and unless you were in the sky and looked straight down or were in the sea and looked very closely, you wouldn't be able to notice it was even there. Inside of it lived a lone blue hedgehog who was laying on his bed, his eyes staring at the ceiling.

He had a nightmare the day before and it bothered him, even though he knew it was just a dream he still had this uncomfortable feeling in his gut. Because of this, he hadn't been able to rest as nicely as usual and was slightly lacking in sleep. _'I really need to stop worrying. This only happened in my head, there's no way Blaze would get captured by that Nega Egghead!'_ Sonic thought. To him managing to capture her would be even harder than managing to capture him, after all she not only shares nearly the same speed but can also control fire, which was a big plus against anything made of metal. Even though he knew all that, that dream gave him doubts.

He sighed, got up from the bed and noticed the large holes he had made in it, his quills had pierced right through the mattress, his pillow nowhere to be seen. "Aw man, that's like the sixth time in a month! I can't believe I keep forgetting that I shouldn't lay on my back on soft stuff. Time to buy another bed…" Sonic then checked the quills behind his head and caught a pillow stuck on them. Sliding the pierced pillow off and throwing it away on a nearby desk, Sonic looked outside the window. It was night already, he felt like he did absolutely nothing today. He had patrolled the usual areas outside and inside Metropolis, said hi to some of his friends on his way and went back home. Not a single egg-robot or criminal in sight. He had wished something would've happened so that he could think of something else and enjoy some action but that wish had yet to be granted.

Sonic went downstairs, taking a key and his wallet before going outside the house. He didn't hear the usual noises of Tails working on his machines, so he assumed that fox was either asleep or had gone back to his own home when he had been away. Locking the door, Sonic looked at the starry sky. _'The day isn't completely over yet! Alright, time to-' _His line of thoughts was interrupted when he noticed one of the stars moving very quickly toward the ground, some kilometers away from him. A few second later, Sonic heard a loud crash.

"Finally, something happened!" With a big grin plastered on his face, Sonic rushed to the spot where the star fell.

* * *

><p>'<em>No no no no no no no! Why did I end up here?! I'm falling I'm falling I'm falling!' <em>Was all that was going through Blaze's head at the moment. The princess had a phobia of heights ever since she was young, she managed to fight it mentally and everyday climbed slightly higher and higher mountains, slowly but surely. She had to after all, it would be a disaster if Eggman Nega learned about this weakness. But for what was happening right now, she hadn't been prepared at all. Climbing mountains is something, but falling from nearly space and coming down like a comet wasn't an experience she was ready for. Fear had overtaken her. The journey wasn't very long as she was about to hit the ground in what looked like a small forest a few minutes later. She closed her eyes and started thinking of the few good moments she had in her life before she braced herself for impact.

A loud sound resonated as Blaze finally crashed, destroying multiple trees and damaging the ground. Her eyes still closed and her jaws clenched, she waited a whole minute before slowly opening them. "It… it didn't hurt?" she said as she rose up, she noticed her fur was still pink rather than the usual purple. She stared at it wide eyed, realizing she had been invincible the whole time thanks to the power of the sol emeralds. She groaned and mentally slapped herself. _'That was incredibly embarrassing. Never have I felt so stupid before...'_ She hoped nobody had seen this scene, at least, nobody she knew. Just the thought of it made her shiver.

Her worries were temporally interrupted when she felt a large gust of wind suddenly rising up. She quickly spun around, ready for battle when she came face to face with a familiar blue hedgehog. "S-Sonic?!" She gasped, even though she was happy to see a friendly face, there was one thing that was still bothering her. _'Had he seen?...' _She prayed he hadn't.

* * *

><p>Sonic quickly arrived at the messy scene, first looking at all the broken trees but quickly noticing the pink cat. "…Blaze?" he asked. He had seen her only twice in her own super form, but he was sure it was her. If there was something he hadn't expected, it was her crashing down from the sky in the middle of the night. Soon enough, Blaze came back to normal, the sol emeralds slowly floating down right next to her."Whoa, that's really handy, mine usually scatter pretty far away and I have to get them again." Blaze didn't answer and slowly started to collect the emeralds. "…Uh, everything's alright? Since you kind of suddenly fell from the sky I'd guess not." Blaze immediately stopped picking up the emerald and turned her head to look at Sonic.<p>

"…Did you see?" She asked.

"See what?" he answered, looking genuinely confused. During a whole minute, nothing was said as Blaze continued to stare in Sonic's eyes. She finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Good, I'm glad you didn't see such an… embarrassing moment." She whispered that last part and cleared her throat. "I apologize for acting oddly, I was thinking about what happened to me a few moments ago." She said, picking up the last Sol emerald on the ground.

"Something did happen then. Is it Eggman related?" Sonic asked, he already guessed it was that troublemaker from her dimension.

"Indeed, it is related to him, but not completely."

Blaze then told Sonic about everything that had happened, from Nega coming directly to where she lived to him trapping her and finally the weird events that followed.

"…And then I arrived here." She concluded.

"Wait wait wait, let me try to understand that last part. So you're saying that when you were trapped, everything suddenly stopped, then you were pulled into some sort of freaky space, then you saw a huge monster and that thing slammed you into my dimension, right?"

"That's correct. You do believe me, do you?"

"Huh? Why wouldn't I? Friends always trust each other, I don't see any other explanation on how you came here anyway. Don't tell me you still have trusts issues?"

Blaze looked away slightly clenching her teeth. "That's not it! It's just that even I can't fully believe my own story. It felt surreal."

Sonic chuckled. "Blaze, if you knew all of the stuff that happened to me when you weren't there, you would be the one that wouldn't be able to believe me."

Blaze faced back Sonic and raised one of her brow, wondering what kind of spectacular or horrifying events happened here.

Sonic crossed his arms and tried to organize his thoughts. "Not only there's a chance that the nega egg-head is somewhere in this world with that monster you fought, but there's an even scarier monster we have to worry about. And what happened to you…" Sonic let out a nervous laugh "Sorry but I think my brain is going to melt if I continue to think about it, and well, It's not like we can do anything about it right now anyway." He said with a smirk.

"…True." She sighed, Blaze wanted to do something immediately, but they didn't have a clue of where to go or what to do, or even what the creature was.

"Don't worry, we can ask Tails later, he's the smart one after all, he'll know what to do." He said, Blaze slightly smirked.

"Really Sonic, what would you do without him?" The cat mocked. Sonic grinned, happy to see she had decided to drop the subject for now.

"Glad to see you're back to your usual self Blaze. It's been like, what, a year since I saw you last time?" The blur asked, remembering the times they went on their second adventure in her world.

"It has been a while. I can still recall perfectly how you reacted when you saw how much water was around us when we met again." Blaze smiled.

That day when Sonic arrived in her dimension for the first time, his eyes became as wide as a platter and he ran so fast backward to get away from the sea that he hit a tree, knocking himself unconscious for a second.

"Please don't remind me of that." Sonic frowned.

"In the end you managed to get used to it. Getting over your fears, an admirable achievement, to say I'm not jealous would be a lie."

"Y'know, when you have the fate of the world on your shoulders you kind of forget about anything else. If it makes you feel better I'm still never going any closer than five meters away of a pond of water."

This made the fiery cat smile. "It would be a lie as well to say that it doesn't make me feel better."

Sonic rubbed his nose, a big grin showing on his face. He then stared at the sky, looking at the moon that shone brightly above. It was already past midnight, but Sonic didn't want to sleep. He still felt uneasy about the dream he had and what Blaze told him. If it wasn't for the unknown monster interrupting Nega, Blaze would have definitely been captured. The hedgehog was thankful of what happened there, his dream didn't come true. On the other hand, the possibility that Nega was in this dimension and came with the machine that stopped Blaze in her super form was very worrying. _'No point thinking about that now.' _He thought, facing Blaze once again. "Hey, you hungry? How about we go eat something?"

Blaze pondered for a second before answering. "At this time of the night?"

Sonic's grin grew wider "Do you know what a chili dog is?"

* * *

><p>It didn't take long for the duo to arrive in front of a large building, on the top there was a sign with its name: "Don Fachio's Hot Dogs", right under it there was another sign, this time with a huge picture of Sonic holding a hot dog and a text bubble coming from his mouth with "I'm Hot Doggin' it!" written in it. Blaze raised an eyebrow and stared at Sonic "I wasn't aware that you were used as an advertising tool."<p>

The hedgehog chuckled. "I don't usually do that because it's not good for the business of other hot dog stands but this company here followed me around to give me chili dogs even when the world was being torn apart and even in front of Eggman's base! I guess those guys deserved a reward." Blaze looked at Sonic in disbelief, she knew he was popular, but to have people to go that far for him was crazy.

"That is some amazing dedication…" She muttered as they entered the building. The inside looked surprisingly average, Blaze thought that the blue blur himself advertising it would turn it into a fancy restaurant, but it looked like any other fast food Sonic told her about when they were on their way here. Although, it was incredibly clean, not a speck of dust was to be seen and the tables almost seemed to be sparkling.

Even if there wasn't many people at this time of the night, a few gasps alongside screams from girls could be heard once people noticed Sonic, many whispers could be heard once Blaze was noticed though, the cat started to feel uneasy about the place. "Who's that?" "Sonic's with a girl at 2am in THE Sonic chili dog fast food?!" "Oh man oh man this is some kind of huge scoop!" The voices went suddenly silent as a very large man appeared behind the counter, he was wearing the clothes of a chef and had a very stern look on his face. He glared left and right at the few people taking photos with their phones, they quickly put them back in their bags or pockets. The chef then stared at Sonic and a warm smile appeared on his face.

"Oh Sonic, welcome back friend! We did not expect you to come so early, but worry not, the best hot dog maker of Central City is here! But for you to come here at this hour, I see you've came along with a friend… Is it for a special occasion?" the large man asked, a sly grin on his face. Blaze had been thankful for that man to silence the voices, but now rather than uneasiness she felt straight up embarrassed.

"Actually it is! Think of it as a reunion between two old friends that have been through a lot. We'll sit at the reserved table." Sonic said. While the mouth of the Don Fachio employee formed an 'O' in surprise, two women a bit farther fainted after hearing 'two old friends that have been through a lot', while another man with glasses took out his phone and started taking a multitude of pictures, muttering things like 'I'm gonna get rich!'.

_'He's done it now.'_ Thought Blaze as she mentally face palmed.

"Oh! Oh oh oh oh, I see my friend. I will prepare the table on the roof then, it will be prepared in a way to _**perfectly**_ match the mood. Please wait a moment, I'll be done soon!" The chef left quickly, while a few others that looked surprisingly similar to the one Sonic was talking to appeared near the man with the glasses and confiscated his belongings in which were multiple cameras and phones, showing with him a sign where "No photos allowed" was written.

Blaze was starting to feel awkward. All they did was enter in a fast-food to eat, but it turned into such a weird mess. "Is it always like this when you enter a restaurant? I've never seen such extreme reactions from people before…" She asked.

Sonic gave her a wide smile, it was true that those kind of reactions wasn't something even he saw often either. "Usually, people just try to have one or two photos of me along with autographs, but girls fainting and guys going completely crazy to get us on his camera, yeah that's a first! I think I know why though."

Blaze looked at Sonic questioningly. "Why is that?"

Sonic smirked, "Probably because you're with me. I think it's the first time I've been seen with a girl that's not chasing me around."

Blaze nodded and thought for a second, Sonic who was the opposite of her, was considered as a celebrity and seen as a hero everywhere in the world, and even though he could he didn't hang with women at all. _'Which means…'_

"Which means you are like an unmarried and respected King suddenly walking around with a woman in public, when nobody is used to seeing you with one?" She said.

"Uh… That's a weird comparison but yeah, I guess that's it. Though…" A sly grin suddenly appearing on Sonic's face "I really think you should come more often with me in public. Seeing everybody freak out was hilarious! Oh and so I can make you visit my world of course." Blaze was about to answer but was interrupted by the chef suddenly yelling about the table being ready and that they could go upstairs. "Alright, time to eat!" Sonic said, as they both took the stairs.

_'A king he may be, he is the silliest one I've met.'_ She thought, a small smile creeping up on her face.

* * *

><p>The roof wasn't just a simple roof, rather than that it looked more like a big garden with a table right in the center, the chef standing right next to it, a big smile plastered on his face. Multiple plants and flowers were growing here and Blaze even noticed a few small animals such as butterflies or birds. On the table were top quality utensils. In the middle of the table there was a long red candle, it already had been lit up. <em>'I should've known that chef was up to something as well.' <em>Blaze thought, she noticed that there wasn't much light around them, outside of the lit candle.

"Ahem, I only have few things to say, first of all here is the remote to take your orders. I'm sure you don't want me to bother you, so just input what you want in there, we'll directly receive it. The menus are on the table. That is all, enjoy yourselves!" The chef immediately left before Blaze even had time to tell him it was a misunderstanding. She sighed and looked at Sonic who simply smiled and shrugged. They sat down at the table and opened the menu.

"Look at that, they added so much new stuff since last time! Pacific dog, Edgy dog, Baguette dog… Ultra super dynamite hell spice chili dog?! This is like the ultimate kind of chili dog, I'll take that!" Sonic said as he quickly tapped the name in the remote.

"Ultra super dynamite hell spice chili dog, that's an impressive name. I'm not sure what to take myself…" Half of the name of the ingredients were unknown to her. She had different fruits and vegetables in her dimension, but also different variety of meat. She knew what a sauce was, but there were so many of them with unknown names she wasn't sure she'd end up liking what she takes.

"How about taking the same as me?" Said Sonic "Or maybe the name is so impressive that you're scared of it? I can understand though, chili dogs like these are not for rookies." A mocking grin appearing on his face.

"Me? Scared? Hmph! Very well Sonic, I accept your challenge and will take an ultra super dynamite hell spice chili dog." Blaze played along, even though she wasn't sure why Sonic was doing it, perhaps to drop the tension that's been in the air since they got here, especially with that chef constantly and indirectly saying they were a couple when they truly were simply friends. Thanks to that though, Blaze was already feeling better and was completely focused on eating that very spicy hot dog.

"Are you sure about that? You can still change your mind you know!" The blur teased.

"I will not go back on my decision Sonic, order that hot dog. **Immediately**."

"Alright then, no regrets now! And… done. Orders have been sent." A small beeping noise came from the remote, confirming that the orders had been received. Sonic grinned, already excited about getting his hands on his midnight snack, he then looked at Blaze who already seemed better than when they got here. He knew she had a hard time around people but he wanted her to feel completely at ease, especially since she was about to eat her first chili dog. Sonic was the first one to break the silence. "So, what have you been doing since we parted ways?" He asked, curious of what the cat has been up to since he and Tails left her world after defeating the mad doctor.

"After we defeated Nega, I went back to guarding the sol emeralds every day. Fighting back thieves and pirates." She answered, making Sonic raise an eyebrow.

"That's all you did for a whole year?"

"Yes. I don't have much time for myself, everyday there might be an attack, I have to be constantly on my guards."

"What about your duty as a princess?" he asked.

Blaze turned her head away, staring at the flowers in the garden, as if she didn't want to talk about it, she eventually turned back and answered him.

"…I am only a princess in name, Sonic." She didn't say more.

Sonic didn't press any further, he understood that she didn't want to talk about it. "What about you? What have you been doing this year?"

Sonic grinned, he started talking about the events of Dark Gaia and how it ripped the world in multiple pieces, how he was summoned in the world of an old book where he met the doppelgangers of his friends and how he successfully destroyed Eggman's new theme park in space. Blaze had been wide eyed the whole time.

"Unbelievable. To think so many things happened in the span of a year."

Sonic chuckled in answer. "Crazy right? Those were some great adventures, maybe a tad dangerous but it just adds to the fun! Oh, looks like the food's here." He said, smelling the air. The chef arrived, two large plates in his hands and a wide smile on his face.

"Two ultra super dynamite hell spice chili dogs coming!" He quickly deposited the plates. "And here have something to drink. The very best red wine from Central City. Enjoy your meal!" he said, putting the bottle on the table before immediately leaving. In the plates, there were two very large hot dogs, with chili con carne, cheese, onion and mustard as toppings. To complete the toppings, there were a few very small but very mean looking chili peppers on it. Blaze examined it closely, not sure on how to eat it, she started taking fork and knife in her hands but Sonic immediately stopped her.

"No no no no no Blaze that's not how you eat a hot dog! Look, that's how you do it." Sonic grabbed it in his hand and proceeded to take a monstrous bite out of the poor hot dog, before loudly munching. "Oh man this is DELICIOUS! You should eat yours too!" After seeing him in action on his food, you could definitely see Blaze's smile widening as she desperately tried not to laugh. Sonic noticed but was way too busy with his new love to say anything about it. Blaze decided to imitate him, taking the hot dog with both of her hands and taking a bite, though much smaller than Sonic. Sonic had stopped eating and was staring at Blaze to see her reaction.

"…This is go-" was what she was about to say until her whole mouth was burning. "T-there's so much spice in this!" She was slightly going red. Sonic burst out laughing, almost falling off his chair.

"What's this Blaze, can't handle a little bit of… heat? HAHAHAHA!"

"Hmph, y-you think I can't handle this? Watch in awe!" She started eating very quickly the hot dog, in a minute, she had swallowed everything, she then crossed her arms and stared at Sonic, a victorious smirk on her face. Sonic looked surprised, but ten seconds later, he noticed that her face was becoming even redder than before and sweat started to form on her head. She still kept up her poker face while Sonic slowly ate his chili dog, staring with a sly smirk.

"Want me to get you some water? You don't look so good." Blaze didn't move at all. "You suuuuuure about that?" She slowly nodded in response, she felt like her head was glowing red right now but wasn't about to lose face. She decided to uncork the bottle of red wine with a trembling hand and successfully managed to put wine in her glass. She then tried to drink as naturally as possible.

"S-See? That was nothing. W-why don't you take some wine too? I-it's good." She said after finishing her drink.

"Oho, as expected you're a tough one Blaze, none of my friends managed to go farther than three bites on a very spicy chili dog. Looks like I've found my eating buddy, we're going to eat this everyday now!"

Blaze almost spat out her drink.

"Just kidding! It'd be a waste to only eat hot dogs when there's so much more." He himself took the bottle of wine and started pouring some in his glass, which surprised the cat.

"I didn't know you drank wine, Sonic."

"When you have to meet other very influential and famous persons, you're kind of forced to drink. Guys like that usually think it's rude to not share a drink. It's not like it's bad though, I kinda like the taste actually. I guess the same applies to you?" He asked out of curiosity.

"To think you've gotten some manners Sonic, that's surprising." Blaze let out a small smirk "But yes, the rare times I had to meet royalty and share a meal with them, I had to drink as well, otherwise they would consider it as a rude act. The taste of the wine of your world is different."

"You don't use the same ingredients? I mean, grapes and stuff like that?"

"Actually we have grapes in my world, but this wine has a much better taste."

Sonic smiled. "Drinking with your buddy rather than with boring royal guys is what makes it so much better."

Blaze closed her eyes, a small smile on her face appeared. "Of course." She had greatly been enjoying this meal between friends, much more than the royal courses she had eaten in her life or the times she had to eat alone while guarding the emeralds. She had to thank Sonic later for it.

"How's Marine doing?" Sonic asked.

"She has been doing well. Our kingdom offered her a job for a lot of money, now she makes blueprints of all sort of ships. Ships for merchandise, ships for tourists, ships to travel or even warships."

"Wow that's great! She must be rich by now."

"She would be if she didn't end up spending all of her money to travel around and upgrade her own boats. That kid visited me every single day, I hope nothing happened to her…"

"Whoa she really visited you every day."

Blaze raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Sonic nervously scratched the back of his head. "Oh uh nothing, nothing at all!"

The cat's brows furrowed. "Don't tell me you were the one that told her to do this?"

"Well I kinda… might have given her an order." Sonic's stare trailed away from Blaze.

"You- what?! Do you know how many times she ended up in troubles with me? She could have been hurt or worse!"

"So, she never got hurt then?" Sonic said with a smirk.

"No but-"

"Then it's fine isn't it? I knew you wouldn't let her get hurt. I wasn't about to leave you all alone again once I went back home."

Blaze wasn't sure how to react to this. "You trust me too much Sonic. What if I hadn't been up to your expectations?"

"But you were! C'mon Blaze we went through plenty of stuff together, you're like my partner, and I know you would always protect Marine."

She looked at him baffled. _'Partners…'_ The thought of having somebody trusting her that much made Blaze blush. "Haa, you're unbelievable as always, there's no arguing with you." She buried her face in her hands to make sure Sonic didn't see it reddening. _'All of this just so I wouldn't be alone…'_

Sonic smirked and got up from his seat. "Alright, how about we call it a night and head home? It's already past 3am, we need to get some rest."

Blaze took her handkerchief and cleaned her mouth before getting up. "Where am I going to sleep Sonic?" she asked. She knew they couldn't go to anybody's house at this time of the day, she wasn't sure if they could even get a room in an hotel.

"My house of course. I've got a friend room that nobody ever uses aside from Tails once in a while."

"It would be rude of me to intrude…"

"I told you I'm not leaving you alone, let's just make sure Amy doesn't know."Sonic said.

The sound of fluttering wings and the voice of a woman suddenly could be heard.

"Just make sure Amy doesn't know what?"

Sonic turned around extremely fast, panicking. "Oh crap Am- No wait, Rouge? Please don't do this, I was about to have a heart attack. What are you doing here?"

The bat giggled. She was in her usual attire, a black suit with a heart shaped armor plate in the middle, her white, long gloves and boots looking as good as new. "Oh, nothing really. I was just flying by when I thought I heard a really interesting story I could totally use to blackmail you with." She then looked over at Blaze, who was already in a fighting stance. "I didn't know you took cute girls to dates in the early morning. I wonder how Amy would react to that…" Blaze stepped forward, a stern look on her face.

"Charming. You were just flying by? Really? Then how about giving me that green emerald back?"

Rouge smiled even more. "Oh my, when did you notice?"

"Only when you took it. I didn't act before because you didn't leave but to think you'd even show up in front of me. For a thief, you are very confident in your abilities."

Sonic sighed, he already knew how it was going to end. He decided to speak up. "Rouge, you really should give back that emerald to her, you're really gonna regret it if you don't."

Rouge put up a hand in front of her mouth, faking a shocked face. "Oh my, would Sonic the Hedgehog truly hit a helpless woman?" The bat said, which made the hedgehog roll his eyes.

"I just ate a super chili dog and it's 3am, I'm not going to hit anybody. My friend here on the other hand…" he said, pointing a finger in Blaze's direction "…Really doesn't share my opinion."

Rouge gave Sonic a deadpanned face, not taking him seriously at all. "What is your fangirl going to do, throw photos of you on me? I'm off with your jewel then. See you later big blue." She said and flew off. Blaze didn't waste any moment and started running after her.

In the end Sonic was left alone on the rooftop. "I'm just going to get another chili dog." He said as he walked downstairs.

* * *

><p>While Rouge flew, Blaze was right behind, leaping from building to building to catch up. "I'm giving you ten seconds to throw back the emerald!" Shouted Blaze, Rouge turned her head around with a mocking smile on her face.<p>

"You wish kid, you can barely keep up with me!" The bat answered. Blaze sighed and started counting, thinking about how the bat truly didn't know what kind of mess she was getting in.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven…" She began running slightly faster for every second counted down, Rouge noticed that and started flying faster as well.

"Look here darling, I'm flying way above you, even Sonic wouldn't be able to catch me so just running fast won't do. Give up already!" Rouge shouted.

"…Five, four, three, two, one." Blaze suddenly started running much faster than before, easily catching up to Rouge and being slightly ahead of her. Blaze sped up once more and made a U-turn, she then pushed on her legs with enough force for her to be right in front of the bat, they were about fifteen meter above the houses the fiery cat was running on.

"W-what the…?!" Rouge found herself eye-to-eye with Blaze, she abruptly stopped flying forward and turned left."So what if you can jump that high? It doesn't mean anything if I can just change directions!"

"Clearly, you're mistaken on what I can do." The sound of an explosion came from behind Rouge, she turned her head to see what was going on and she was greeted by a flying punch straight to the face. The bat fell to the ground, dropping the sol emerald on the way. The cat had used her power to thrust in mid air.

"Ow, ow… Didn't anybody tell you that hitting a lady's face is forbidden?"

The fiery cat picked up the emerald and pocketed it. "Multiple times actually. Now get up, don't think I'll let you go just because I got the emerald back."

Rouge got up and got into a fighting stance. "Don't get so cocky, I'll steal back that jewel!" The bat ran to the cat and delivered a powerful side kick, which was successfully blocked by Blaze. Rouge continued her assault of kicks, using a multitude of them such as roundhouse or even axe kicks but the fiery cat blocked every single attempt to open her guard.

_'Not bad at all. She's much more skillful than what I usually fight.' _Blaze decided it was time to take the offensive. She opened up with a serie of jabs right after blocking and pushing away another kick. None of them landed cleanly but it was enough to stop the bat from attacking. Next thing she did was a low kick, Rouge nearly got hit by it but flew backward right in time, it didn't stop Blaze though as she quickly propelled herself forward and landed a straight punch right in the gut, it was a clean hit.

"Ouch! Got you!" Rouge endured the blow and grabbed Blaze's fist, lifted her up and started spinning. She picked up more speed before throwing her toward a tree, but the cat turned around in midair, landing on her legs on the trunk of the tree and pushed once more to go back at Rouge, who wasn't expecting that. The cat wasn't the only one to have quick reflexes as Rouge managed to deflect another of Blaze's punch with a well-placed kick, harming Blaze's arm in the process.

_'Impressive. If it wasn't for my fire power I'd say we're nearly even in the close quarter field.'_

Rouge went on the offensive once more and started by delivering a sweeping kick, Blaze jumped over it and countered with an aerial sidekick aimed at Rouge's head. The bat narrowly blocked it and pushed it back and tried to follow up with a roundhouse kick. A clean hit, Blaze truly felt the power behind the bat's legs. She was knocked away but managed to land on her legs once more.

"How'd you like that sugar?" Rouge asked with a grin.

_'I've underestimated her, she's physically stronger than me. I could end it right now with fire but then I wouldn't see how far I can go without it.' _Blaze thought. "I am impressed, it's the first time I've fought somebody as skilled as you are."

"Let me guess, you've only fought men before? They're such brutes and have no style when fighting unlike us, don't you agree?"

"I don't." The cat bluntly answered. Rouge snickered, they both suddenly charged at each other.

"I'll end this fight now." Blaze said.

"I told you not to get cocky!" the bat answered as she kicked sideway with her left leg. Blaze blocked it at first and then quickly caught it with her left arm, locking it. "Why you-!" Rouge didn't even have time to finish her sentence that the fiery cat fiercely stomped on Rouge's right foot. The boot's interior was made of metal so she didn't do any real damage but she had completely stopped the bat's movements. Rouge took a defensive stance similar to boxers, protecting her face as Blaze was about to hit it with her free arm but she received a brutal blow to the gut, the cat had faked the straight punch to land a clean hit. "Ugh!" Rouge yelled in pain as her defense in front of her face dropped, Blaze took the opportunity and punched the bat in the face while releasing her legs, knocking her away. She landed with a thud on the ground.

Blaze approached and knelt down beside her, knowing that the fight was over.

"Alright I give up, I give up, I won't ever steal your emeralds again!" Rouge shouted, almost pouting like a little kid.

"This was a wonderful fight, it is such a shame that you're a thief, you're fit to be a warrior. If you were in my dimension, I would already have asked you to be put in the highest grades of the army." Blaze offered her hand to Rouge, she took it and the cat helped her up. "I am Blaze, what is your name?"

"Rouge. The name's Rouge." The bat got up, dusting off her clothes. "Thanks for the compliment darling. I may be a thief, but I sometimes work for the government and help them when they need help, which means often. And by your dimension you mean…?"

"Long story short, she's not from here." Suddenly said a male voice. Both Blaze and Rouge turned around to see Sonic munching on a chili dog, with the chef in a Don Fachio cart behind cooking another one. "I've been there the whole time y'know, you guys were so much into your fight that you didn't even notice me or the delicious smell of hot dogs." He nonchalantly said.

"How rude of you Sonic to interrupt a friendly discussion between ladies!" Said Rouge, crossing her arms to show her disappointment. Sonic raised an eyebrow

"Weren't you trying to kill each other a second ago?"

"So what?" The bat continued.

"Uh…" Sonic started, but the chef behind came to his rescue and whispered in his ear.

"Women's logic Sonic! Don't try to fight it!" he then went back to the cart just as fast as he came.

"Right, I forgot. Thanks dude. Looks like you two have a bunch of stuff to talk about so I'll just leave for a bit. Don't take too much time though, I need to get a bit of sleep before the sun starts to rise." He then left and went to sit down at the cart, talking with the chef about how irrational females could be.

"Ahem. How about you tell me about that dimension of yours?" Blaze nodded and told Rouge what had happened so far. The two time the dimensions collided and now this would make the third time. "You're a princess?"

"Yes."

"Does that means your kingdom is doing well?"

"Well, yes."

"Then that means you have lots of jewels?!" At this point, Rouge's eyes were nearly sparkling.

"…Yes?" Blaze didn't really understand what the bat was going about, but it was clear that she had an unhealthy addiction to shiny stones.

"That is great to hear. By the way… it seems like on those adventures, you had an awful lot of time together with Sonic, am I right?"

Blaze almost let out a groan. "This is technically correct but please do not-"

"I knew it! Look here, I knew many ways to make a guy yours, so if you need any help, call big sister! As your new best friend, I will help you in any possible way, if I can of course." The elder bat said, proudly pointing herself with her thumb.

_'-get the wrong idea.' _Blaze finished her sentence in her head, knowing that the bat would hear none of it. "Best friend?..."

"That's right! We're best friends now!"

Blaze froze for a minute or so, realizing that she just had suddenly made a friend. She could count the number of friends she had on one hand, Cream, Sonic, Tails and Marine. This meant 4 persons, but now Rouge told her that they were best friends. On the other hand, she had absolutely no idea what having a best friend meant. Was it like some sort of super friend? Did it count for two friends?

"Blaze, sweetie, is something wrong?" The cat snapped out of her thoughts.

"My apologies, I was just thinking about what exactly being best friends meant. I've never had any best friend, but I am honored that you're my friend now Rouge. It means a lot to me, I have very few friends to begin with so…" The cat turned slightly red from embarrassment. Rouge looked stunned, to think such a sweet, cute girl having room filled with jewels, or so the bat thought, having little to no friends felt impossible.

"Oh my poor darling! To think you were in a state like this!" The bat dramatically said before hugging the cat. "Sweetie, a best friend is so much more than a friend. We'll talk about absolutely everything to each other. By absolutely everything, I mean truly everything! From what you ate yesterday noon to what you want to be in thirty years! Dear, do you have a mobile phone?"

The cat broke away from the hug, feeling embarrassed. It seemed that the bat didn't particularly care about personal space.

Blaze shook her head. "Mobile phone? I didn't know that existed." She answered.

"Sugar, your dimension is really behind isn't it?"

Blaze didn't say anything. In truth she wasn't sure if her kingdom's technology was progressing, that wasn't something she followed much, especially since she lived on an isolated island, the only thing she had cared about was the economical state of her kingdom who was actually doing very well these days.

Rouge took out a pink and black card as well as a pen out of her cleavage and started scribbling notes on it, before giving it to Blaze. "See this darling? The address is where I am most of the time. I host a night club and this card is a super VIP card that I only give to a veeeeeery tiny amount of people! Treasure it well and come visit me soon okay? I have to go now, my club is waiting!" Blaze held Rouge's arm when she was about to take off.

"Please wait an instant." She took out a handkerchief and cleaned the dirt and the small amount of blood on Rouge's face. "This will do. I also wanted to tell you that you need to vary your attacks more. I only managed to beat you because you are focusing too much on your very powerful legs in a fight. I recommend training your upper body more often, at least to make it sturdier. It seems you also didn't expect me to fight in a dirty way in the end because I am a woman, that was critical information you informed me with by accident. Please be more careful next time, mistakes like that can cost you your life."

Rouge blinked twice, she then smiled once more. "Honey, strong legs are a woman's life, but thanks for cleaning my bloody nose and the tips anyway! See you later sweetie." and with that, the bat flew into the night.

Blaze returned to the hot dog stand where Sonic and the chef were talking. The hedgehog noticed the cat coming, she had a very small smile on her face. "Did something good happen?" She nodded.

"As strange as it sounds, I've just become best friends with Rouge."

Sonic and the chef both looked at each other and just shrugged. "Women." They both said together. Blaze tilted her head in confusion. "Never mind that Blaze, It's 3:50am, I think we should let the chef sleep and head home now." The cat nodded. Sonic paid a massive amount to the guy, much more than what they actually bought but he didn't mind, saying that he had too much money to spare anyway. After pushing the hot dog cart with the chef on top back to the fast food station, the blue blur told the fiery cat to follow him to his home.

About ten minutes later, they arrived in front of a house hidden behind hills. Sonic opened the front door and let Blaze enter first. "Welcome in my house, you're the second guest it ever had!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Second guest? You don't bring your friends here?"

"Nobody except me and Tails have been here. It's a secret to everybody to avoid waves of fans, or Amy, staying around the house day and night. Some fangirls are crazy enough to forcefully barge in and get in my bedroom in the early morning to watch me wake up."

"You're quite popular with the younger girls Sonic."

Sonic sighed. "It has its ups and its downs I guess, though I kinda wish girls weren't so insane when they catch sight of me."

Blaze smirked. "Sonic the lady killer… I've never thought I would say this one day."

Sonic rolled his eyes, he then showed her where the extra room was. "It looks like a regular bed but trust me, it's the comfiest thing ever. You'll probably be staying here for a while so make yourself home." Letting out a yawn, Sonic decided it was about time they rested. "Well then, time to sleep. Good night!"

"Wait Sonic."

He turned around to face Blaze. "What's up?"

Blaze slightly bowed "Thank you for everything tonight. It was a wonderful evening."

The hedgehog had a big, sincere smile on his face. "You're welcome. Oh and Blaze?"

"Yes Sonic?"

"You're more upbeat than before. Keep it up, you're better that way." He said, which made a smile appeared on the cat's face.

"…I will. Good night then Sonic."

"Nighty night!" They both entered their respective rooms, it didn't take long before both fell asleep.

Sonic was right, it was truly the comfiest bed Blaze had ever slept on.


	4. Oblivious Child

_Oblivious Child_

The sun shined brightly in the sky as its rays pierced through the windows of Sonic's house. Blaze felt the sun's warmth on her eyes, the warm light prying them open. She sat up and stared at the window. From there she saw the ocean; it felt very familiar to her, almost as if she was back in her own dimension. She stood up and opened the window, the fresh air and the smell of the sea intruding in the house and the cries of seagulls echoing in the room, they were flying not too far from the window. Blaze took a deep breath before looking at the room.

She didn't really have time to explore or notice anything the night before as she had been really tired; thankfully, she had time to take her hairband off change herself into a pair of clean pajamas she found in the wardrobe next to the bed. Now that she looked at it during day time, the bedroom was actually much larger than what she thought it was. In the middle of it there was a bed big enough for two persons, on its left was the wardrobe and on its right a large dresser.

On the dresser there were two items, one was a digital clock with "8:15 AM" written on it, the other was a frame with a photo of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles together, smiling, with the red echidna holding the other two under his arms. _'They look like brothers.' _ She stared at the picture a few more moments before checking the drawers. Most of them were empty, or had small mechanical parts forgotten by Tails in them. Blaze opened the last one and found a toothbrush still in its sealed plastic package. She took it and moved to the right of the dresser where a door was, on it was written "Bathroom", she entered it.

After taking a bath and doing whatever she needed to do in the bathroom, she got out and went back to the wardrobe. In there was her usual clothes neatly arranged as well as her hairband. She took everything out and inspected the clothes. For the upper part, aside from the arms she had to use to block Rouge's attacks, the rest of it was quite clean. The lower part on the other hand had multiple dirt stains here and there, but it wasn't anything too bad. She had checked in the bathroom and didn't find any products to wash her clothes, she decided to head outside of her room.

Blaze ended up in a corridor, on her right was a door on the wall in front of her, as well as a dead end. There was written "SONIC" in big letters on the door. She guessed it was Sonic's bedroom. On her left there was a spiraling staircase. She went downstairs and stepped in the living room.

In the middle of it was a large sofa. There were a few items Blaze didn't know in the room, mostly what was in front of the sofa. She had never seen a flat television before, nor had she ever seen the game console under it. She didn't dwell on it too long. Blaze noticed that the kitchen was the only other room aside from the door to exit, since she didn't find anything that was looking like it could clean clothes, she headed there.

The kitchen wasn't very big but it had everything needed to make a good meal. Judging by the dusty state of the frying pans, Blaze deducted that it had been a while since Sonic had used it. A large, square shaped machine was what caught the cat's eyes next. On it there were multiple sheets of paper with instructions written on them, as well as describing what the machine was. _'A washing machine? This is just what I needed. But why would Sonic have something like that? I've never seen him wear anything other than his gloves and his shoes.' _ She thought.

In her dimension, most of the people of her kingdom wore clothes, mostly for practical reasons as some nights could be really cold or during the day when the sun is very strong. Blaze had actually been surprised when she first met the blue blur, not because he was half naked, but because he was running at such an impressive velocity without any protection and yet wasn't even harmed. She understood that Sonic had actually a body strong enough to withstand the speed, which also worked in his favor during fights. She remembered the first time they fought, even though she had been on the offensive most of the time, she never managed to knock him down, he would always come back with a taunting smirk, looking stronger than before.

Following the instructions on the machine and separating her clothes by color, the washing machine started to work. It would take longer, but the princess didn't want to have purple stains on her leggings. While her clothes were being washed, she decided to explore the kitchen a little more. The frying pans had much more dust than she thought. Blaze decided to clean them, as well as the little pile of slightly dirty plates and glasses next to the faucet. _'He's letting me sleep here, I can at least do this much.' _ By the time she was done, the washing machine finished its work as well. _'That was fast, it's also completely dry.'_ She pulled out her purple coat and put what was left of her clothes, white leggings and underwear, and launched the machine once more.

Soon enough, Blaze heard footsteps coming from the staircase; the worldwide hero had woken up from his slumber. With a loud yawn, the sleepy hedgehog entered the kitchen and opened his fridge, taking out a bottle of milk, only noticing Blaze once he turned around.

"Oh, morning Blaze, you're really early." It took him a second to realize she wasn't in her usual attire. She was wearing his old blue pajamas with clamshells motifs he usually kept for Tails, just in case. She also had her hair down; her hairband was nowhere to be seen. "Liking the clamshells?" He said with a smirk.

"Good morning to you as well Sonic. As for those clamshells…" she started observing her current clothes more closely "I was not expecting you out of all people to have clothes with drawings related to the sea on them."

The hedgehog chuckled and sat down on a chair in front of the small rectangle table that was in the middle of the kitchen. "Tails offered them to me a while ago, saying things like how it would help me fight my fear of water." He said.

"It doesn't look like it helped much." She plainly stated. "I'm still glad you have them, otherwise I would be currently talking to you while only wearing my coat." Blaze said, the hedgehog had a sly smirk on his face.

"Maybe I should keep the PJs in my room tomorrow then?"

Blaze blushed; she quickly cleared her throat, understanding what he meant. "Please be serious Sonic, when did you start using those kind of jokes?" She said,which made him let out a small laugh. The cat wasn't used of getting teased by him in that way.

"Blame it on Rouge, she had a bad influence on me." That was true, Rouge had always teased Sonic in a certain manner, after a while Sonic did get used to it and even managed to surprise her with comebacks. "You'd probably roast me like meat on a barbecue if I tried to do that anyway." The blue blur then noticed the washing machine vibrating behind his guest. "You got that thing to work?" He said, pointing at it.

She raised a brow at Sonic's reaction; it looked like he had trouble using anything slightly advanced "I just followed the instructions that were placed on it. Didn't you?"

"I did, except I ended up with a kitchen flooded with soap and bubbles. It was pretty funny though." Sonic started uncorking the bottle he had in his hands and was about to drink directly from it but stopped midway, remembering he had a guest in his house. "Sorry, bad habits kicked in." He said with an apologetic smile and took out two glasses from a cupboard placed above the faucet. "Want some?" He said as he handed Blaze one of the glasses.

"Yes please." She answered. Sonic nodded and started pouring milk in her glass and then in his own. They both drank and when they were finished, the hedgehog stared at the cat, curiosity taking over him.

"So… Do cats really get a kick from drinking milk?" He asked. He had seen multiple advertisements or cartoons where the cat drinking milk scenario played out, but he wasn't sure if that was true. After all, he had seen advertisements where hedgehogs managed to sleep on their backs on specially made beds but Sonic was sure it wasn't true after testing multiple times and ended up piercing seven so-called invincible beds with his quills.

"I'm not sure myself. In my kingdom, milk is a popular drink; on the other hand I've never been very fond of it so I wouldn't be able to explain why. If anything, I prefer fruit juices or tea."

"Not really into commoners' drink?" He teased.

"That's not it Sonic. Nobles might not drink it for this sole reason but for me…" Blaze hesitated a few moments before speaking, carefully selecting in her head the words she was about to say next "Let's just say that it brings back memories I'm not very fond of." She then became silent.

The hedgehog lightly scratched his cheek with his finger. "I guess we all have this kind of memory we just want to forget forever but that just pops back up once in a while."

Blaze didn't answer and closed her eyes. Whenever she drank a bit of milk, painful memories from her childhood would come back to haunt her. She hated it and didn't even know why she still drank the white brewage.

Sonic suddenly had an idea and his usual smirk crept up on his face. "Wait here for a minute, I'll be right back." He stormed out of the house, a strong wind following him, Blaze opened her eyes in surprise. Fifteen seconds later, Sonic was back on the same spot he was before, right in front of the cat. He had a completely new bottle in his hand. "One fresh glass orange juice made this morning with top quality oranges coming!" The blur poured down the content of the bottle in another glass and handed it to hesitated a second before grabbing it.

"You shouldn't have gone through all the troubles to get me juice made with oranges." She closely examined the inside of the glass. She had oranges in her dimension as well, but they were actually a rare kind of fruit, she wondered if it was the same here. "Is it difficult to find oranges in your world? It's not every day that I get to drink this in my dimension, are you sure it's fine for me to have it?"

"I didn't go through any troubles. Oranges are pretty common here, so drink and cheer up, I don't want you to go all moody when the day just started." He said, still smirking.

"I see. Thank you for the drink then." Blaze said as she started drinking. It felt refreshing, as if she had completely woken up. She noticed she hadn't heard the washing machine's sound for a while now, it must had been finished long ago. She opened it and, just like her coat, her clothes inside were clean and completely dry. She excused herself and went back to her room to change, Sonic nodded an went to the living room, he sat down on the sofa and turned the television on to see if there were news that would catch his interest.

Short moments later, Blaze came out of her room, walking in her usual attire. She noticed Sonic sitting on the sofa and decided to sit on it as well. "I didn't know you watched television." She began, surprised at how focused the hedgehog was while he was looking through every channels that bought up news there.

"Only to see if there are accidents or crimes going on. Otherwise I'm really not into TV." He plainly answered. Silence settled in between the two, the news channel not giving anything remotely important. Considering that it was a waste of time to watch it, Blaze decided to speak up.

"In how much time will we meet Tails?" She was starting to get impatient. Blaze didn't want to come off rude, especially since Sonic was kind enough to give her a roof to sleep under while she was there, but there was a monster on the loose and the possibility that Nega might be there as well.

The hedgehog looked at the digital clock written on the top left corner of the screen, "9:00 AM" was displayed on it.

"He should be up by now. How about a jog?" He got up with a smirk and blasted out of the room, Blaze quickly followed him, managing to actually close the door on the way out, leaving the television still turned on.

The news channel was still going on when the journalist suddenly interrupted herself and looked at the camera surprised, a hand quickly gave her two new pages of text.

"…And now for today's most interesting news: the famous hero Sonic the hedgehog was spotted very early this morning with a purple female cat at the popular Don Fachio's fast food in Central City, we have gotten pictures from an anonymous tip that also came with a comment on how they ate at an out-of-sight table on the roof, which is unusual considering the fastest thing alive has the habit to take out whenever he ordered there! Stay tuned for more of the story later today."

* * *

><p>Isolation. A word that became surprisingly quickly what the genius fox needed whenever he wanted to work on his newest inventions. Tails always thought he would be able to work at his home in peace but he had been slowly appearing on the news along Sonic.<p>

It didn't take long before the world noticed he always had something nobody had ever seen before or saw that every time his plane appeared somewhere, it always had an impressive upgrade.

The fox slowly started receiving letters or mails from fans that had question on how much he knew about physics. Thinking it was amusing, Tails answered all of them. At first, they were mostly basic mathematics or physics and there were very few letters, as time went the amount of letters became slightly bigger each week. Biology, robotics, informatics, physics and even philosophical and chaos energy related questions.

Before he knew it his letter box was constantly full with requests from universities, research centers and companies from all over the world to explain them all of the facets of chaos energy, willing to give out millions of dollars. Almost every day of the week scientists, philosophers or even students came to his old house to be able to talk to him and while he enjoyed company, it was starting to become too much.

It wasn't a swarm like the media as they were already too busy with Sonic to have time for Tails and he was thankful for that although he sometimes did appear in newspapers, he rarely did on the big screens of the popular channels.

It was still a very pressuring environment for a soon-to-be 10 year old; he had not been ready for the sudden rise in popularity at all and decided much like Sonic to have an isolated place he could live in.

Unlike his big brother he didn't sleep every night there as he would end up way too far from civilization but he stayed there at least two to three weeks every month. He had decided to make a new laboratory in Holoska. Even if it was cold, the people from there were very friendly and nobody bothered him whenever he was in his lab and if he needed anything he couldn't find here, he could import from Spagonia or Apotos. He avoided importing directly from Central City, just in case any of his "fans" would try to track him down.

Like any other day, Tails was busy working on personal projects: He had been trying to find a way to track down Robotnik through the many robots they've destroyed, still nothing. There was no link between the robots to a home base or something similar; the only thing they did was communicate between them to coordinate attacks when needed so this meant that either the bad doctor was good at covering his tracks or there truly was no connections between the robots and him. Tails had already decided that the latter was impossible since Robotnik managed to often call for backup.

The fox sighed, he had been on this for weeks now, and he knew that the mad doctor was a genius as well but to be this good was absurd. "Right, he never managed to track me down as well." That was also true. He never did show up right in front of any of his labs or his house, Tails always managed to cover his tracks as well whenever he needed to hack into one of Robotnik's systems from far away. There was also the fact that usually the place where the hacked system was quickly ended up destroyed by Sonic and his friends. He started typing once more on his computer, not giving up.

Taking a sip from a cup of hot chocolate on the desk he was sitting in front of, Tails thought about one mails he had received from one of his fans. He had made two separate addresses, one for personal use and one he gave to a few communities he trusted. The latter ended up full fast and the fox never bothered doing much cleaning in it, but he did check it out once in a while. One time, he decided to check the mails on that address and saw one with "DR ROBOTNIK" as its subject. The sender was unknown. He was curious and opened it. Something he regrets doing now. He remembers every words of it.

"Dear Two-Tailed fox,

You are a genius. You've done many inventions and know much more than all of us; you've built machinery we can barely understand and many times helped out your friends in defeating Doctor Robotnik. He is also a genius with an amazing army, something we may not be able to defend ourselves against.

I know about what happened before you met Sonic. You were constantly bullied at your school because of your anomaly. I'm talking about those tails of yours. Nobody helped you, and it didn't help that you stood out even more thanks to your amazing brain, being at the top of all the classes when you were only so young, a six years old doing high school mathematics.  
>I know you quit studying as soon as you met Sonic and followed him. You've now grown up and outside of being a very young genius; you're now a worldwide hero as well. I am certain that you have more people that are envious of you than you have fans, I'm sure you think so too.<p>

And more than once, I'm sure you've thought about getting revenge, revenge against those bullies, against the people that didn't help you out and against the people that hate and envy you right now.

You could forge an army and fight the planet on your own.

But then there's Sonic, he's the only one you can truly trust because you think that as long as he's more in the spotlight than you, he will never get jealous of you right?

What would happen if Sonic were to disappear, or worse, lose his place and start envying and hating you just like the others?

Would you go crazy and turn your back on everyone? Would you make everybody submit to you just to get the respect you've always desperately wanted?

Would you become the next mad doctor?"

He had quickly found out that this email came from one of his teachers from his old school, the history teacher more precisely, a man that preached constantly about the value of hard work. No wonder he didn't like Tails.

He didn't give an answer, he simply closed it. He had stopped breathing for a second after reading it. Everything in it was true and was possible.

With Sonic, he thought he could forget his past and start completely new, that nobody would bother him anymore. He knew it was foolish, he always had. "This is ridiculous, I would never become like Eggman, never! This teacher is the one trying to make me mad! This guy has some nerves!" He raised a fist and hit the desk; it was strong enough to make the nearly full cup fall. The sound of glass breaking snapped Tails out of his anger. "And he managed to do so multiple times already… I need to calm down, I should just forget about this message."

He sighed once more and stood up; he needed to clean the mess he had just made. He went to grab some sheets to clean but suddenly heard a knock on the door. "It's early; I wonder who this could be." Tails opened the door; a blue hedgehog was standing in front of it with a bright smile on his face, a lilac cat just behind him.

"Yo Tails!" Sonic said.

* * *

><p>If there was anything Blaze hadn't expected about Sonic's jog, it was the fact that they actually raced through a whole country to get to Tails. She was sure it had taken at least 45 minutes to end up in front of his door and that was while going at full speed. She was also sure that the hedgehog took the longer paths on purpose as well, he hadn't even broken a sweat and even if Blaze was looking fine, she still wanted to take a small break.<p>

After they entered the icy zone, she noticed Sonic wasn't going quite as fast anymore, she guessed he was starting to feel cold. The cat was glad they finally arrived to Tails' location, although she was surprised to know that he lived so far away, not really understand why either.

"Sonic!" The fox excitedly said with a huge smile on his face.

"Hey buddy, surprise visit of the day! Guess who's come with me?" The blur answered.

"First of all, don't stand there in the cold, come in! Who'd you bring with y- What the, Blaze?" Tails stared at her in surprise, she was probably the person he expected the least. The surprised expression quickly turned back into a smile. "It's great to see you! How have you been? What about Marine?"

Sonic and Blaze entered the house, Tails closed the door behind them. "It's good to see you as well Tails, I've been doing fine. Marine is as active as ever." She answered him.

"Typical Marine!" The fox smirked. Blaze stared at him; it had been a year since she had seen him. He looked the same but wasn't as small as before.

"You've become taller." She stated.

"Of course, I'm nearly 10 years old now!" He proudly stated before opening another door leading to a bigger room "You guys can go sit on the couch of the living room; I'll make a few hot drinks. What would you like to drink Blaze?" He asked.

"Any kind of tea will do, thank you." She said, to which the fox nodded as he went to the kitchen. Sonic jumped on the couch and sat down. He started rubbing his arms quickly to try to make them heat up faster.

"Man I'm freezing, I know I shouldn't run too fast when it's cold but I can't help it. Sliding on those frozen rails were totally worth it though!" Sonic said. He turned his head to stare at Blaze who looked perfectly fine. "Aren't you cold?" He questioned.

"Not much. My powers keep me warm enough through low temperatures." She answered.

"Oh right. Your powers… Hmm…" Sonic had stopped rubbing his arms and pondered for a moment, still staring at her.

"Is something the matter?" She pondered, unsure of what Sonic was currently thinking.

"…Ever tried to warm someone else up?" A smirk appeared on his face while Blaze looked confused.

"No. Why?"

Sonic stood up and pointed at himself with a finger. "Alright, then it's time you try this out, heat me up!"

The cat blinked but then shook her head. "I'm sorry Sonic but I'm not doing this. I might burn you by accident."

"A little fire doesn't scare me."

"I've never done this before; I can't guarantee your safety."

"There's a first time for everything! And hey if I catch on fire I can just run outside and roll in the snow. You'll have to heat me up once more though." Sonic's confident smirk only got bigger.

Blaze sighed; there was no reasoning with him. "Fine, don't blame me if something does happen." She stood up from the couch and approached the hedgehog. "To heat you up without burning you or anything around us, I'll have to be very close to you. I need to make the flames strong enough to have an effect while at the same time keep them weak enough so that you won't catch on fire." She explained, Sonic nodded, the explanation had been simple enough for him to understand everything. Blaze carefully placed her hand right in front of Sonic's chest. It started to glow lightly. "Are you feeling anything?" She wasn't sure if it was hot enough for the hedgehog. He shook his head.

"Nope, you can definitely go higher." He said. The cat nodded, her hand glowed brighter. "Oh yeah now THAT is the perfect temperature."

Blaze had a small smile on her face, she was slightly proud of her accomplishment. She never had the occasion to use her power to help somebody else outside of battles.

"Think you could manage to heat up my whole body, rather than part by part with your hand?" He asked. As nice as it was, the hedgehog felt slightly weird being very cold on some parts of his body while being warm on the other parts at the same time.

"I believe I can do that, but it seems much more difficult. I will have to mirror your stance while controlling the fire to make sure it warms up your body equally. It would be like managing multiple small different flames rather than spreading out one unique flame." She paused, trying to calculate the right distance. "It looks like I'll also have to be even closer than what I am right now to avoid burning the room as well."

"Ready to try it out?"

Blaze nodded and stepped closer. They were only centimeters apart, Blaze could slightly feel Sonic breathing, she ignored it and concentrated on her task. She took the same pose as Sonic before asking him to not move. Closing her eyes, the cat focused on her body, starting with her legs then going up, making the chest and head areas slightly colder than the arms and the legs. She was starting to glow slightly while Sonic was enjoying the warmth coming all over his body a lot.

Tails had taken more time to clean up the glass he had previously broken by accident, the liquid had fallen on some wires and he had to quickly clean those as well to avoid future accidents. Two minutes later, he entered the room with the warm drinks on a plate and saw what was happening without really understanding anything. He noticed how close to each other the duo was and felt slightly uneasy. Blaze stopped glowing as both the cat and the hedgehog looked at Tails' direction, Sonic having a very relaxed smile on his face, Blaze with her usual stoic face.

"Er… Did I interrupt anything?"


	5. Scrambled Dimension

_Scrambled Dimension_

There wasn't anybody actually sitting down in the living room. Tails had just entered and didn't really understand what was going on, while Blaze had been staring at him for a few seconds, wondering what he was talking about when he meant "interrupting". Then there was Sonic who already knew that both the cat and the fox were clueless; he was currently trying to find as many jokes or puns he could in his head just to make his little brother even more confused and manage to embarrass the pyro-kinetic princess.

"You didn't interrupt anything Tails, I was simply warming up Sonic with my power." The cat stated.

"Warming him up?" The fox repeated. A huge grin suddenly appeared on the hedgehog's face.

"That's right, she made me all warm and fuzzy, she's really handy at using her power that way and I'm feeling great right now thanks to her!" Sonic said, stretching. Blaze raised an eyebrow, being completely clueless about what the boys were on.

"A-all warm and fuzzy?!" Tails' jaw nearly dropped, his imagination starting to go everywhere but he quickly shook his head to try and make sense of the situation, Sonic being vague wasn't helping either. He knew the older hedgehog was teasing him on purpose. He noticed Blaze was much calmer than he was, she had actually stepped away and was now sitting on the couch, waiting for the other two to come so that they could get down to business, and staring at one of the magazines that was on a table in front of the couch.

Tails guessed that Blaze literally warmed Sonic up with her fire power, probably because he had been cold_. 'He could just have turned the radiators up.'_ The boy genius blinked twice noticing he was still standing at the entrance of the living room with both hot drinks in his hands. Sonic sat down next to Blaze, muttering something about how disappointed he was that he only managed to tease Tails and not the princess as well. He moved to the small table in front of the couch to place the cups on it, the duo took their respective drink, thanking him, and enjoyed the green tea and the hot chocolate.

The fox sat down and cleared his throat. "As happy I am to see you in our world Blaze, I'm guessing you're not bringing any good news, right?" He didn't like to bring it up in this manner but Tails knew that just having Sonic's counterpart here would disturb both dimensions, ultimately leading to the end of both worlds if she stayed too long.

"Unfortunately, you are correct." Blaze proceeded to explain everything that happened so far, starting from Nega's attack and ending when she ended up meeting Sonic. "We've thought that Nega might be here as well, as for the monster… I'm not sure what to think about it."

"Hm…" Tails started evaluating the current situation. He created in his head a hundred different amount of scenarios that played out using what he just heard as the base. "The chance that both eggmen are in this world is relatively low. Think about it, you said they disappeared earlier than you when you went into the wormhole and I highly doubt a space and time bending monster would make only one exit to our dimension, which would be way too convenient and suspicious."

"What if Eggman controlled that monster? I mean it's not the first time he tried to do something stupid like that." Interrupted Sonic, the fox nodded, having already thought about that scenario as well.

"I don't think that's the case either. If Nega was so close to capture and get rid of Blaze forever, why would Eggman intentionally stop him from doing so? It doesn't make any sense. I sorted out my thoughts and decided on three possible scenarios: First one, the monster and the Eggmen have no connection, which means that the chance that Nega fell in another dimension than ours, or yours is high, getting rid of Nega forever, bad news is that we have a space bending creature on the loose. Second one, they still have no connection to the monster but Nega somehow fell into our dimension and is currently searching for our Eggman. The third one is the worst case scenario and also the most unlikely: Robotnik has a connection to the monster and successfully managed to bring Nega to his side."

Sonic had managed to not be distracted the whole time Tails talked. A difficult task for the hedgehog, he wasn't used to listening to lectures and was more about going straight into action, but when you potentially had two worlds plus time itself in potential danger, the hedgehog thought it would be a good idea to plan out something before acting. He was starting to get impatient and bored quickly though.

"Wait a minute." Suddenly said Blaze "How would Robotnik know what Nega was currently doing? In the case where Robotnik does control the time beast, it definitely could have been an unintentional mistake. Everything would make sense as well."

"That would've been my theory as well if it wasn't for just one small detail you might not know about; let's go into my lab, I have to show you something." The fox got up and exited the room with Sonic and Blaze following right behind him. Opening another door that leaded directly to a spiral staircase going downward, the fox started speaking. "Recently I've started intercepting strange signals." The trio moved downward, ending up in a large room filled with all sort of inventions Tails had been working on, from all sort of vehicles to much smaller devices like the Miles Electric. Behind the vehicles was a computer slightly larger than the one he had above. "I couldn't trace back those signals, Eggman being the only one I can't track down I decided that something was suspicious about them and made a brand new computer only to follow those specific signals. The results were very… Surprising, to say the least." Sonic raised an eyebrow; Tails had never talked to him about this, it was a first. He usually told Sonic everything the mad doctor was up to as soon as he did find something.

"Why'd you never tell me about those signals Tails? I know I'm not the smartest hedgehog out there to understand all that signal and computer stuff but if egg-head is up to something I think you should at least inform me. Wait, could it be that you're in that rebellious age? Oh no!" The blur started making dramatic gestures in the air "My widdle bro has become a cold and uncaring teenager! Big brother is gonna faint!" The hedgehog fell very slowly and comically to the ground almost as if it was a scene taken straight from a drama. By reflex, Blaze caught him. He looked surprised, quickly got back on his feet and stared at her. "Blaze, you were supposed to let me drop down to the floor and then help me up with comforting words, not catch me during my superb fall."

The cat tilted her head in confusion. "Uh… I'm sorry?" She said. The fox started laughing, the hedgehog quickly followed while Blaze just stared at them, not understanding what was happening. She cleared her throat; the boys slowly stopped their laughter. "We should go back to discussing important matters."

"Haha, that's right, sorry about that Blaze." The fox wiped a tear from his eye and started explaining once more. "Sorry if I didn't tell you about it Sonic."

The hedgehog grinned and gave him a thumb up. "I don't mind, I'm sure you had good reasons to not tell me."

Tails nodded. "That's right. The thing is that the signals lead to absolutely nowhere at first, I wasn't sure what to think of them until I noticed something really weird about them. Take a look at this." Tails pushed a few keys on the computer, the screen lit up and a line moved up and down on it. "This is a recording from one of the previous signals. That's just a normal wavelength as you can see but then…" The line suddenly stopped while it was going upward. "It just disappears; it only gets even weirder though. They end up reappearing after a few minutes but on a completely different part of the world. Don't even get me started on the wavelengths that pop out of deserted areas with another pattern. None of it made sense to me so I just thought it was harmless and that maybe it wasn't from Eggman." Tails turned off the screen. "It didn't make sense until you arrived with Blaze here."

"I'll be honest Tails it still doesn't make sense to me even today, not for the same reasons of course." Sonic said smirking, the fox chuckled, understanding what he meant by that.

"Next time I'll try to explain it in a simpler manner!" He answered. Blaze had been silent during the explanation, she certainly wasn't a genius but she started to know where Tails was going with what he was talking about, or at least she thought she was.

"Could it be that those signals were directed at Nega?" She asked. Tails looked pleasantly surprised at Blaze's guess.

"Bingo! Robotnik had found a way to send signals through dimensions, which would explain the odd phenomenon that happened. They went from our world to yours, this way the eggmen managed to communicate between them. I'm not sure how he managed to create such a signal, it would be nice if I could get my hands on it, we could talk with Blaze or Marine whenever we wanted to!" Even though the fox looked very happy of his discovery, this was no laughing matter.

Two evil geniuses being able to work with each other even when they were dimensions apart was something very dangerous for both her and Sonic's world. Blaze wondered if that was how Nega had managed to trap her while she was in her burning form, by working together with Robotnik.

"Do you know how long it's been since they started communicating?" She asked. The fox simply shook his head, a frown on his face.

"I stumbled upon those signals by accident and all I can do for now is momentarily following them. I can't even decode them; the encryption is incredibly difficult to break through." He answered. Blaze sighed; this situation was bad for them. Tails looked down, a saddened expression on his face. "Sorry, I guess I wasn't very useful…" The cat stared back at the young genius, realizing what she just did might have come off as rude.

"No, you did more than enough; you do not have to be sorry. If anything, I'm grateful for your help, everything you've discovered is crucial information. Thank you Tails." Blaze said and in an instant, the fox turned bright again. Sonic let out a loud groan, his patience had reached his limits and he wanted to do something.

"Lemme guess, we'll have to wait for them to make the first move right? Ugh, if there's one thing I hate more than having the wrong sauce on my chili dog, it's waiting!" The hedgehog stopped and put a finger under his chin, pondering for a moment. "Wait, maybe I hate having the wrong sauce more than waiting? Do I hate both equally?" Ignoring Sonic's ranting, Blaze agreed with him, they had to wait for something to happen. She looked back at the blur that was still going on about what he hated most.

"It looks like we're forced to wait and be on our guard at all times. What shall we do for now then?" The only answer Sonic gave was a shrug. Tails nervously scratched the back of his head, hesitant to raise his voice.

"How about you guys stay at the lab today then? I don't feel like working on anything right now but I don't feel like going anywhere either. I can show Blaze a bunch of stuff about sol energy as well!" The young fox excitedly said. Sonic smirked, happy to hear he wanted to spend time with his friends rather than work on machineries. He knew Tails had a lot of his mind and often overworked himself to not think about anything else. The young fox often asked for tips on how to deal with his sudden popularity; it was actually Sonic's idea to make a new house in a faraway place, much like his own home.

"Alright buddy, we're staying! I'm sure you want to know more of what Marine has been doing too right?" The blur said, Blaze smiled, she didn't mind staying either. Tails nodded, beaming. He then suddenly remembered about something.

"Oh right, you never told me about your nightmare Sonic! So what happened in the end?" He asked. "You promised you'd tell me!"

'_Uh-oh, I thought he had forgotten about it.' _

Blaze turned her head to stare at the blue blur; she was suddenly very interested in this. "What nightmare?" She asked.

"Yesterday night, Sonic decided to sleep on the roof of another lab I was working inside. I was asleep when I suddenly heard him call your na-" Sonic quickly interrupted.

"SO ABOUT THOSE SOL EMERALDS!"

Tails laughed while Blaze raised an eyebrow.

'_What was that about my name?'_ She thought. It wasn't often people dreamt about her. When she was still in her kingdom, she sometimes overheard persons saying how they had nightmares about being burnt alive by the princess. _'Did I also appear that way in his dream? Like a demon? Is this why Sonic doesn't want to talk about it?'_ She felt a light tap on her shoulder, she turned around, the hedgehog was staring at her with a smile.

"Whatcha zoning out for Blaze? Tails is already rambling about his theories on sol energy, we should follow him quietly and talk about more interesting stuff, like chili dogs!" He said with a wink, a big smile plastered on his face. Tails was already walking ahead of them, he spun around.

"I heard that!" The fox yelled, his cheeks puffed out in an adorable manner, making the hedgehog laugh.

"Aw shoot! Now we'll have to listen to what he's saying. C'mon Blaze, let's go." He said as he walked to the angry little fox.

Blaze was surprised at how Sonic acted around her. If he truly had been afraid of her, would he be so close to her? Would he have shared a meal with her as friends? On the other hand, she knew that he was a difficult person to figure out, the hedgehog may act cheery at all times but very rarely would share his worries with somebody else, or so she thought. She shook her head. _'This isn't the time for this, I should try to enjoy the little time I have left in this dimension.'_ The cat quickly caught up with Sonic and Tails, listening to the fox talking about his latest invention.

* * *

><p>It is currently 11:45 AM.<p>

Lying on a bed, a pink hedgehog with a red dress had been watching television all morning, something she didn't do often, until a special announcement about Sonic taking a girl out to dinner was made on the main news channel. It was the 567th time the girl had played the same scene, stopping just as it finished and rewinding it to look at it once more. Every single time, her right eye twitched whenever she saw that reporter smile just before a photo of the famous hedgehog walking along a lilac cat inside of a just as famous eating place in Central City. Two other photos showed up, one where Sonic could be seen talking to a large man, ordering his dinner apparently, and another one that was slightly blurred out but you could still make out the cat and the hedgehog going upstairs, to a "very special table". The 568th time, the pink hedgehog finally paused the television completely and jumped out of her bed, looking incredibly angry.

"Who does that cat think she is, taking MY Sonic?! And how could he betray me, his girlfriend?!"

The room she was in was completely pink, and aside from the usual furniture you could find in a bedroom, there was an impressive amount of different photos of Sonic stuck to the wall or ceiling. She turned around and stared at a spot just above the bed, there was a picture in a frame of her and the blue blur together, with a "Nice job Amy! –Sonic" written on it. That picture had been taken when Sonic had decided to accept to go on a date at an attraction park with her as a reward of her saving multiple civilians during Eggman's last attack. Also because she hadn't been as aggressive or nagging that day, which Sonic considered as an improvement over her usual self.

Amy just couldn't help herself, whenever she heard or saw the hedgehog; she always went crazy over him. Sometimes she wished she would just calm down a bit, knowing she bothered the superstar a lot. Not today though. So far, Sonic had been unapproachable by nearly all of his girl fans, her being the exception. The blur having little female friends as well made the pink hedgehog very confident in her decision to proclaim herself as his girlfriend, persuaded he wouldn't get close to other women on his own. Obviously, Sonic had never agreed with it but let it slide anyway, not feeling like he would ever be able to argue with her, so he simply just ran away every time.

She knew Sonic considered her more as a little sister than anything because of her young age, she was far from stupid. Amy had tried to become more feminine to please him but nothing had changed between them, he was still the same incredibly kind hedgehog that took care of everybody with a smile, the one and only person she had fallen in love with.

That cat on the television, showing up everywhere with Sonic, Amy would definitely not forgive her. She had a nagging feeling that she had met somebody that looked like that before. _'I'm going to give her a piece of my mind! Today, Amy Rose is going to kick some bu-'_ Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. She answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Hello Amy! This is Cream, how are you?"

"H-hey Cream! I'm fine, what about you?"

"I'm fine as well, I'm calling just to confirm if you're coming to my house today."

Amy had completely forgotten about this, she had promised the rabbit that she would play with her as well as help her mother, Vanilla, with some chores.

"O-of course I haven't forgotten! I was just preparing myself to come right away."

"Great! I'll see you in a bit then!" The excited rabbit hung up, the pink hedgehog sighed. The cat will have to wait, Cream was more important to her than a few photos with a rumor attached to them. She also needed to think about something else or her head would probably explode out of anger. Quickly taking a small, pink handbag and putting her wallet, keys and phone inside, the girl headed out of her house and locked the door behind her.

"Okay, to Cream's house, pronto! I'm still going to call Tails once I get there; I need to see Sonic…" She said as she started walking toward the closest train station.

* * *

><p>"…And that's the gist of how sol energy works! It's very similar to chaos energy, isn't it?"<p>

At this point, Sonic was laying on a nearby couch, his head aching from too much complicated information trying to enter it. It was almost noon and it has been a full hour since Tails had started explaining how chaos and sol energy were used and reacted to each other. At first, they had started talking about Marine, the fox asking a lot of questions and Blaze managing to answer most of them, except when it got too technical for her. Then Blaze had asked what Tails had been up to, the conversation had stayed simple until the cat had noticed one of the larger machine in the laboratory. Sonic was pretty sure that the genius' eyes literally lit up when Blaze unfortunately asked what it was for. He started explaining what it actually was used to but then followed with another subject, and then to another, and ended up talking about their and Blaze worlds' respective energy.

How the cat had managed to listen through everything and even take notes was what impressed the blue blur the most. He had given up listening after hearing the word "chaos", when they went on the sol subject Sonic had tried to listen once more but had been defeated by the fox's enthusiasm.

The hedgehog looked back at the two and noticed that Tails had finally stopped talking. He decided to join them once more. It had been a while since he had seen Tails this excited, he guessed the fox needed somebody to have a dialogue with that could understand him whenever he went on his long explanations, there were very few in his circle of friends that could grasp what the fox went on, often either giving up halfway or simply didn't care in a certain black hedgehog's case. He was glad Blaze didn't end up in either cases, he'd have to thank her later for entertaining his best friend.

"This was some very useful information, I'm grateful for all the researching you've been doing Tails. It will help me a lot in the future." Blaze said, giving him back the pencil she had been using to write notes on a sheet of paper. On that paper was written how they needed energy from positive thoughts to be activated, how each emerald had their very own wavelengths, how they resonated with each other and how they were connected to a bigger emerald. Blaze had never seen or heard about a "Master Emerald" in her dimension, Tails was sure one must exist somewhere, it's just that it might have been very well hidden, or forgotten. Tails' theory was that the master emerald was like the core that held their planet together, hence why he was insisted so much on the existence of a sol version of the Master Emerald.

"No problems! If you wanna know something else, just ask me!" The fox said, happy to help somebody with his vast knowledge.

"Hey, since you guys are done talking, how about we go grab a bite? I'm starving!" Sonic said.

"Um actually, I still had one last tiny thing to show you guys. That is of course if Blaze currently has the sol emeralds with her." The fox answered with a sheepish smile. "Then we'll go and eat, promise!" Sonic's stomach wanted to protest but he just couldn't say no to Tails.

"Alright buddy."

"I do have all the emeralds on me, please wait a moment." Blaze said, she quickly went upstairs and came back down with the seven jewels in her arms. Sonic looked surprised, wondering where she had been keeping them.

"Where were you hiding them?" Asked the curious hedgehog, Tails was just as interested in the answer the cat was about to give.

"I have several pockets inside of my jacket." This made both Sonic and Tails answer with an "Oh I see" at the same time, understanding that she went upstairs to take her jacket off. _'This makes me wonder, how did that bat manage to steal one last night, let alone notice I had them?' _ Tails interrupted her thoughts, telling her and Sonic to follow him as they went deeper into the laboratory.

They ended up in front of a large machine that had the appearance of a pillar, in front of it was a console as well as three screens and a keyboard. The fox entered a few words into the computer, the pillar giving a soft whirr as an answer. A plate suddenly came out of the ground next to him; it had seven rectangular holes in it. Instructing the cat to put the each gem in a slot, the fox explained what he was about to do.

"I know I said it I wasn't aware of how Eggman made a signal that went through space but it's possible with the help of the sol emeralds. Since they are directly connected to your world, we can see how "close" both dimensions are. With this, I can calculate how much time is left before they start merging! I might even be able to find your master emerald." The fox proudly said.

Seeing that Blaze had finished filling the slots, Tails launched the machine. The pillar started spinning and the stones shining, a few seconds later it stopped, results appearing on the screens. The fox furrowed his brows when he read the results. "What the… This isn't possible." The fox once again started up the machine, getting the exact same results. He started frantically searching for bugs, even going under the screens to see if the wires were all correctly connected. "I don't understand, everything is fine, how could it give me those numbers?" Entering a few more commands, more text appeared.

"**USING TEST TRANSMISSION… STATUS: OK  
>NO PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN FOUND.<strong>"

"What's wrong?" Blaze asked. She looked at the middle screen where was displayed "**TIME: 9.9+E6 D**" having no idea of what it meant, she turned to Sonic, he shrugged, not having a single clue either.

"It means that we have over ten million days before the dimension will merge." Tails explained, making Blaze raise an eyebrow in surprise, she was sure that it took barely two weeks before reality started going haywire the last time both sets of emeralds were in the same world. "I have two theories of why this would show on my screen. None of them are good news either…" Sonic and Blaze stayed silent, the fox turned around to face them, a grim look on his face. "The first is that those results are false. Either somebody is purposefully blocking the signals of the sol emeralds or my machine has encountered a bug."

"It's not as bad as it sounds." Sonic stated.

"It is, because I'm certain that it isn't the case I just checked for possible interferences as well as bugs, everything is clean, which leaves only the second theory. It's possible that Blaze's world may have completely disappeared."

"What?!" Both Blaze and Sonic shouted in unison in total shock.

"This can't be, what about Marine?!" The fiery cat quickly said, the fox lowered his head.

"I truly have no idea of what happened to the inhabitants, sorry."

"No way, this isn't possible…" Had she lost her home and one of her only friend in her world in an instant?

Sonic had managed to remain calmer than Tails and Blaze and had been searching for an answer in his head. He couldn't believe that a planet would disappear in only a day, nothing is powerful enough to do that quickly enough, and if that time monster Blaze had encountered did it, then why wouldn't it also do the same for this world? _'Wait… Time monster?'_ An idea suddenly formed in the mind of the hedgehog. His voice rose up, catching the attention of both the cat and the fox. "Tails, what if the world was still there but had been stopped?" The fox raised an eyebrow, unsure of what the blur was on.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Blaze told us that before she was sent into our dimension, time slowed down and that both Nega and his robot stopped moving completely, that she was the only one being able to move, aside from those flying discs right?" The cat hastily nodded, the fox stayed silent, understanding where the hedgehog was going. "What if it was still in that state? What if her world had been completely frozen in time? Would we get those results as well?" Tails thought about it for a few minutes, a smile slowly growing on his face.

"Yes, of course… Everything makes sense now! The power of the Sol Emeralds weren't affected by time which is why we get a result, but since your dimension is frozen in time, we get an absurdly large number as it can't try to merge with our dimension! If her world truly had disappeared we wouldn't even get an answer as the signal would just be lost in space!" Tails was nearly jumping up and down out of excitement and happiness. "Wow Sonic; that was really smart!" The hedgehog grinned in answer.

"I'm not a genius like you but I'm a pretty good quick thinker!" He said, he was very proud of this fact.

"Thank goodness… I'm glad Marine is safe." Blaze breathed in relief, hadn't Sonic intervened, she would have broken down in tears. She might have said in the past that the raccoon was a nuisance but she knew she really liked her._ 'It looks like Sonic saved me once again.'_ She thought. She picked up the emeralds before going upstairs, putting them back in her jacket and quickly coming back.

"Alright! How about we go eat now? All this tension made me even hungrier. I'm down for some Italian food! Who's with me?" The blur said. Tails' hand rose up fast.

"Me! I definitely need a good pizza right now."

"What's Italian food?" The cat asked. It was the first time she heard that word.

"The second best kind of food after chili dogs! You're going to love it Blaze, I guarantee it. Onward to Spagonia, Tails!"

"Aye aye sir! The plane's already outside ready for us captain!" Tails said, imitating a sailor. He quickly rushed outside of the lab. Sonic and Blaze stood there, the cat slightly frightened at the mention of flight.

"Wait plane? I'm not getting-" She hadn't had any time to finish her protest that Sonic had already grabbed her arm and busted out of the house at super speed with her, arriving in front of the famous Tornado. Tails locked the doors as they got out. _'-in any plane.'_

"C'mon it'll be fun! It's the first time you went on the Tornado too right? Tails made it all by himself, it's not just any plane, it's an awesome one!" The blur said. The fox got in the front seat, putting on his aviator googles and scarf.

"There are only two places so you two will have to share the back seat." The fox said, Sonic quickly jumped in while Blaze just stood there.

"I-It's fine, I'll just run along and-" Sonic rolled his eyes, he jumped down, lifting her up to carry her bridal style and jumped back in his seat, putting her down right in front of him. "W-Wait a minute I told you I'd-" The blur wanted to hear none of it however and interrupted her once more.

"Let's go Tails!" He said, the fox started the engine and after a few seconds, they took off.

"Wait wait WAIIIIT!" The cat desperately shouted while Sonic and Tails laughed.

Inside of Tails' empty house, the phone started ringing, a call coming from Vanilla's house.


	6. Planes and Boats

_Planes and Boats  
><em>

"Come on Tails, pick up the phone already…"

Inside of a large house in a cottage, a pink hedgehog was trying to call her friend, nervously twirling the cable of the old phone with her free hand. It was the third time she had dialed up his number today; with ten minutes between each call. She decided it would be better to leave a message.

"Hey um Tails, it's Amy. I've been trying to contact you but I guess you must be very busy, or not home. I need to talk to Sonic, I'm sure you must know where he is right? Please call back as soon as you can!" Amy hung up, putting the phone back to its place. She sighed and walked outside of the house to take a breath of fresh air. She had started the day as angry but now she was starting to get depressed.

Her imagination had been working all day, making various scenarios where Amy was left completely alone by her hero, leaving her for another girl. It wasn't necessarily the lavender cat that appeared in her head, it could be a stranger she had seen on the streets or even the infamous bat thief. "I'm getting delusional, even if she's really flirty, Rouge wouldn't do that. Sonic would never leave me either…" She muttered.

To think that a rumor would make her feel so insecure; Amy wasn't very proud of herself. She had been so angry that she ended up tiring herself just thinking about the current situation.

The hedgehog hadn't even noticed the tall rabbit that had just gotten out of the house and standing next to her. "Is something wrong, dear?" Amy let out a gasp of surprise as she finally noticed the woman's presence. She was a tall rabbit with beige skin; her orange hair was neat and tidy, and she was wearing a long lavender dress.

"Miss Vanilla! Since when have you been standing here?"

The older woman let out a soft giggle. "I just arrived; you looked down so I came with cold drinks!" She showed her hands, each carrying a small bottle of water with ice inside. "I thought it would cheer you up. It's so hot today too; you should make sure you drink enough to avoid insolation as well." Amy thanked her and took one bottle.

If there was one person the pink hedgehog considered even sweeter than Sonic, it definitely was Vanilla. She was an incredible mother, not just to her daughter but to everybody. She would help anybody in need and listen to them talk as long as they desired, always giving out very helpful tips in the end.

"Phew, I really needed this. Thank you." Amy said, enjoying the cold sensations the water gave her after drinking. Vanilla smiled softly, she had often talked with Amy in the past every time the hedgehog was worried. She watched the horizon and noticed that Cream was happily playing with her pet chao Cheese in the large garden in front of the house, oblivious that the two older women were even there. "I'm sorry I've been acting weird, I've had a lot on my mind since this morning."

"Is it about Sonic?" The pink hedgehog nodded. There wasn't a television in Vanilla's house, only a radio, Amy knew the rabbit probably wouldn't have heard of the information yet. "Do you want to talk about it?" Amy hesitated for a second before nodding once more. "Let's go and sit down then." Vanilla walked toward a white table that wasn't too far from the garden. Cream noticed Amy and her mother and waved her hand at them, smiling, the older women waved and smiled back, the young rabbit quickly went back to playing with her Chao. They sat down; Vanilla stared at Amy with a smile.

"Um… I'm not sure where to begin." The pink hedgehog tried to sort her thoughts as Vanilla patiently waited. "I don't understand why Sonic still doesn't look at me like a woman. I learned about fashion, I've become more girly and I've grown up now, I'm not twelve anymore!"

"Is that really what bothers you?" The rabbit knew better that Amy wasn't directly going in the subject, she had been used to it after the many times they talked together.

"…No, it's not... Have you heard about that new rumor on Sonic yet?" The pink hedgehog asked.

"I think I did. It's the one about him being in a hot dog fast food with a female cat at a very unusual hour, isn't it? It was everywhere on the radio today. I see… I should have expected this to be the thing you were worried about."

Amy was surprised the older woman had heard about it. '_Rumors sure do spread like wildfire, especially this one.'_ She thought. "I'm not sure what to think anymore because of it…" Amy slumped on the table. It was the first time Vanilla had seen the girl like that.

"You know Sonic, dear; there could be a million of reasons of why he ended up there with that girl, for all we know he could have saved her life by going there with her."

"But even by knowing this I can't help and think that the rumor might be true, that he's with that totally unknown cat!"

"If it was true then that would be extremely unusual for Sonic to act like this." Vanilla was sure of her words; she knew the blue blur well. Even though he didn't talk much about himself; the older bunny had managed to figure him out after a while. "Let me tell you something Amy, it's not that you're not cute enough. Aside from your young age, I think that you're very pretty and had it been anybody else, I'm sure you would have been a couple already." Amy stayed silent during the time Vanilla spoke "Sonic isn't just anybody though; he's a very busy hedgehog. Because he has to save the world every day, I'm sure that he's afraid to have somebody close to him for now, he doesn't want to see them harmed."

"Then, are you saying that it's impossible for me and him to be together?" The pink hedgehog's ears slightly dropped when she pronounced the word "impossible".

"Of course not! What I'm saying is that it might not be the right time for him to be with somebody. The more he loves someone the more he'll have to push them away to avoid them getting hurt. I'm sure you've realized that already."

"I know…" Amy sighed, she was well aware that Vanilla was trying very hard to cheer her up. "I guess this means he loves me too much then!" Amy joked with a smile, she still wasn't convinced but talking with the rabbit had definitely comforted her a bit.

"That's the spirit!"

"Thanks Vanilla, I'm sorry I keep bothering you with my stories every day."

"It's okay dear; we all need somebody to talk to." Vanilla's mouth turned into an impish grin "It'd be dishonest of me to say I don't enjoy hearing out your adventures, it reminds me of my teenage years…"

"Oh! I wonder what you were like before." Amy asked, curious of the rabbit's past.

"Well back in the day…" Vanilla was cut short as her daughter, Cream, came out of a nearby bush right behind her, shouting "BOO!"; causing Amy to fall out of her chair with a yelp in surprise. The little rabbit and her chao pet burst out laughing; she then helped the pink hedgehog up.

"Let's go play!" Cream said very excitedly, it looks like she had grown tired of playing alone and wasted no time in rushing back to the garden. Amy looked back at Vanilla who had been staring with a smile.

"We'll talk later another time then. I'm going to make some tea while you can go play with Cream." The older rabbit said. Amy nodded and quickly followed cream. As Vanilla went into her house to make the hot drinks, she thought about the rumor once more. _'They said he was with a purple cat… I wonder…'_

* * *

><p>The Tornado was high up in the sky. It had been ten minutes since it had taken off and was flying through the arctic winds at full speed. Tails was humming a tune; he enjoyed piloting the plane when there were friends aboard. He couldn't talk or hear them however because of how loud the vehicle was, so the fox was forced to wander in his own thoughts.<p>

The backseat behind Tails wasn't as relaxed as he was, or at least Blaze wasn't. While Sonic had been grinning the entire time and was watching the scenery, Blaze had been staring down at the metallic surface of the plane, not even daring to look upward to see how high they were. Because of the lack of space, the cat had to sit between the legs of the hedgehog. At first she had wanted to be behind to be as close as she could to the seat but was quickly reminded of the sharp quills Sonic had, forcing her to be in front of him. It didn't help that they also had to share the same seatbelt, this made Blaze even more concerned about her safety; Sonic didn't seem to mind sharing though.

"You should really check out the view Blaze, it looks great!" The hedgehog said, or more like shouted over the sound of the engines. The cat almost turned back at him to complain but remembered to keep her gaze lowered.

"No thank you." Blaze firmly replied. She wasn't happy she had been forced in the plane by him.

Sonic turned his stare away from the scenery, now looking at the cat in front of him. A coy smirk quickly replaced his grin. "Looks like you just transformed from panicked kitty to grumpy cat!" Blaze sighed, muttering something the hedgehog hadn't managed to hear. "You're still mad at me?"

"Yes."

"So, you're going to keep staring at the ground till we arrive?"

"Yes."

"Is "yes" the only word you know?"

"Ye- No."

This made Sonic laugh, much to Blaze's dismay. "C'mon Blaze, stop admiring your shoes or you're going to completely miss the snowy mountains!"

"How would you feel if I had forcefully put you on a boat in the middle of the sea?"

"Uh, wasn't that basically what happened to me in our last adventure? I didn't really have the choice to get on Marine's boats, or submarine. You'd probably have forced me in if I didn't get there by myself." The hedgehog pointed out. The cat nearly groaned out of frustration.

She sighed in defeat. "You're completely enjoying this, aren't you?"

He grinned, victorious. "Yup."

Silence settled between the two, leaving Blaze to wander in her thoughts. She realized it might have been the first time she had been with the hedgehog for so long without being under imminent danger. They had very little time to rest in their previous travels and were either running, fighting or planning the next move. Sure, Sonic cracked jokes every now and then but they definitely didn't have time to go to a place to sit down and eat, or watch the scenery.

Everything currently felt so peaceful. _'This won't last forever…'_ She thought, the cat knew it wouldn't. The danger might not be imminent but something was bound to happen. Blaze noticed from the corner of her eyes that Sonic was still staring at her. "What?" she asked; still sounding angry.

"How long are you gonna stay mad?" He asked, almost innocently.

"As long as we're on this plane, I'll-" Blaze was about to finish her sentence but she noticed something out of the corner of her eye: Sonic's leg was slightly shivering. "…Are you cold?"

A mischievous idea formed in the mind of the cat; this time she was the one that was going to tease Sonic.

"Just a bit, since we still aren't out of Holoska. Not being able to run is making me feel even colder…"

"I could warm you up."

"Really? After everything I did? You're waaaaay too kind Bl-"

"On one condition."

"…Knew it."

"Tomorrow, we're going on a boat trip."

Sonic looked surprised. He was expecting something worse than this. "That's it?"

"As long as you promise you won't go back on your word that's all I will ask of you." She answered.

Sonic hesitated before answering. There probably still was slightly under an hour before they're out of the cold zone of Holoska and he certainly didn't want to end up completely frozen or sick. On the other hand, he had no idea what Blaze was planning for this "trip", the hedgehog was sure she wanted her revenge on him.

"…Fine, I'll hold that promise." He finally said thinking that whatever the cat's idea was, it couldn't be as bad as freezing, especially if it's related to boats.

"You can't have any regrets now. I'll also hold my part of the deal." Blaze said. As happy as she was that the hedgehog had fallen for her trap, she now had to get closer to him to heat him up. She slowly straightened up eyes closed and unsure of how close she was to the hedgehog.

Sonic's foot would've been quickly tapping on the metal floor hadn't it been for the fact that it was nearly completely frozen. "Could you go any slower Blaze?" He mocked.

"Qu-quiet, be glad I'm even trying." She answered with a snarl, it was already difficult to choose the right temperature in this weather and the fact that they were so high in the sky didn't help at all.

Sonic sighed. "Look, you've got mister seatbelt that protects you from falling and if you think he's not competent enough then…" he then wrapped an arm around her waist "I'm there as well, there's no way you're going to fall now! Now please hurry up I feel like I'm already turning into a giant blue popsicle."

Blaze opened her eyes in surprise at the hedgehog's action and forced herself to not immediately close them once she saw the peak of a mountain in the distance. "R-right." After quickly adjusting to a "safe" distance, the cat's body started glowing, slightly brighter than the previous time she did this. Sonic relaxed himself, his body slowly getting warmer. Blaze made sure his arm wouldn't get burnt._ 'How nice of him, I'm starting to think that punishing him tomorrow might not be worth it.' _She thought.

"This is great. Think you could keep it up for the whole flight?"

"Since when did I become your personal heater?"

"You know, mister seatbelt's old bones are kinda fragile and my arm is starting to get a bit too hot so maybe I should take it off and-."

"I can last the whole trip. Yes. Definitely." She answered through gritted teeth. _'Never mind what I thought before, he's going to pay very dearly.'_

In the end, Blaze continued to keep Sonic warm the whole time they were flying.

* * *

><p>The plane finally landed right outside the doors of the Italian town, Blaze was the first to jump down and almost started kissing the ground but decided it would be embarrassing and started stretching instead. Having to constantly control her flames during nearly 40 minutes had tired her out and made her very hungry.<p>

Sonic jumped out of the plane next, a yawn escaping his mouth. He had actually fallen asleep midway but somehow had managed to remain unnoticed by the cat and had luckily awoken thanks to the plane's rough landing.

Tails didn't get off, instead he spoke up, telling his passengers that he needed to find a good place to park the Tornado and that he would meet them at the "usual spot".

"Alright, what pizza do you want then?" Sonic asked the fox.

"Pepperoni with extra cheese!" He immediately answered.

"Gotcha." Sonic answered with a grin before the fox's plane took off.

Blaze waited until the Tornado was out of sight before letting out a sigh of relief. "I'm never getting in another plane." She said.

"Hey, think of it in a positive light, every single of my fans would kill to be sitting near me!"

"And I'd kill to stay on the ground." She responded. The hedgehog let out a snicker before walking through the entrance of the town.

The duo entered the city and quickly went to the center of it, where, based from Sonic having a ten minute long speech about it, the best pizzeria in the galaxy resided. Blaze noticed that there weren't many people bothering Sonic as he passed by, most of them just waved or smiled at him out of respect. She also noticed the number of older men and women were higher than the number of teenagers, she understood it was the reason why Sonic wasn't currently being chased by a group of fans. _'What a peaceful city.'_ The cat thought.

They finally arrived at the door of the legendary pizzeria, Sonic went inside and Blaze quickly followed. The people in the restaurant immediately recognized the blue hedgehog but didn't make a fuss about it. What gave Blaze the biggest surprise was all of the scents there were in the room that were combined to the scent of cheese. It was a delight for the cat's nostrils. A waiter welcomed the hedgehog and the cat and handed each of them a menu, Sonic didn't even bother to open it already knowing what he will take.

"Welcome! What will it be today, mister Sonic?" The waiter asked, a smile on his face looking as if he knew the answer to his question.

"Let's see, we'll have one pepperoni with extra cheese, one large hot-and-spicy pizza and uh… Blaze, what do you wanna eat?" The hedgehog turned around to face her. She had been reading the menu and there was one pizza that had caught her eye: the pacific pizza. The description said that it had salmon on top of the cheese. A combination too tempting for Blaze, her cat instincts forced her to choose it.

"I shall have a pacific pizza please." She finally said.

The waiter nodded and, after writing everything down, went to the kitchens. The pizzas were prepared surprisingly quickly, the cat and the hedgehog barely had time to talk about anything before three large boxes appeared with the same waiter as before, putting them in front of the duo. "I believe the order will be a takeout like usual?" the waiter asked, Sonic nodded in approval "Very well then. Please enjoy yourselves you two." The waited added with a wink. A few elderly couples in the restaurant laughed, saying things like "Youth!" or "Just like when I was young…" which made Blaze raise an eyebrow while the hedgehog shrugged. Sonic paid for it all and took the boxes before heading out.

"Where shall we eat?" Blaze asked, she wasn't one that usually got impatient when it came to eating food, but having fish and cheese in the same plate was something she wanted to taste immediately.

Sonic let out a mischievous grin as he had thought of his new plan to annoy the cat. "We'll be eating at the top of THAT clock tower." He said, turning toward the huge tower in question.

Blaze shuddered when she saw what Sonic was talking about. "You have to be joking, there isn't even a flat surface up there!" The hedgehog didn't answer, his grin getting bigger before he ran at full speed away from her with the pizzas still in his hands. She groaned, knowing the hedgehog had trapped her once again, before following him at great speed.

* * *

><p>It didn't take long before they arrived at the top of the tower. Blaze had slowed down quite a bit to avoid falling which had led Sonic to mock her multiple times by running backward while juggling with the boxes. The first thing that they noticed though was that Tails had already been there, sitting on the edge, his miles electronic in his hands. The fox was busy using multiple programs at the same time but still noticed the scent of food in the air; he turned around and saw Sonic messing with Blaze. "Glad to see none of the pizzas have fallen on somebody this time Sonic!" Tails said.<p>

The hedgehog turned around, a frown on his face. "C'mon Tails that happened like just once! …Okay maybe more than once but look, I'm great at juggling now!" He said as he started launching the boxes and catching them with his forehead while being on the tip of one foot, the other leg in the air, trying to balance himself, though trembling a bit. "S-See?"

Tails laughed. "Yep you're barely shaking." The fox mocked. Blaze had turned her head away, not wanting to see Sonic goofing off when they were so high in the sky. "How about you two sit down so we can eat the pizzas?" Tails said. The hedgehog put the boxes back in his hands and sat down next to the fox, he then looked at Blaze who was still standing very closely to the wall and had not moved yet.

"What's wrong Blaze; you don't want your pizza? If you don't come here you won't be able to eat it and it might end up in my stomach!" Sonic taunted. The cat grumbled in answer and carefully approached while going along with the wall, not daring to look down and focusing on looking at her own hands. She finally sat down next to Sonic but let out a small shriek as she fell in a gap between the wall and the border, which made the hedgehog laugh. Even if it was a bit cramped, Blaze felt much safer than before.

_'Huh… It seems like I'm very lucky right now.'_ She thought. Sonic gave her the box containing her pizza; she quickly opened it to see the wonderful round food that had already been cut in eight triangles. The smell was still wonderful and she quickly took a bite of one of the slice. "As expected, it is truly delicious."

From where they were, they could see the entire city; a very nice sight to behold. Blaze was intrigued by the buildings she saw, as far as she remembers none of them were similar in her world. Humans certainly had a much different way of thinking than her kind. _'Now that I think about it, I haven't seen an animal similar to me, or Sonic and his friends since I've arrived here.' _ The cat thought.

Tails noticed Blaze was lost in thought. "What'sh up?" he said, still munching on his slice of pizza. He blushed with embarrassment when he saw that he was talking with his mouth full and quickly gulped down what was left inside. "Sorry about that, hehe. So what's up?"

"I was just thinking that there weren't many animals like us. I don't think I've seen one yet aside from people Sonic personally knew of." She answered.

"That's because we're a minority in this world, many of us prefer to not show ourselves to the public. Thanks to Sonic our relationship with humans has greatly improved even if both sides still don't trust each other completely." The fox explained. "Are there any humans in your dimension Blaze?"

"Aside from Nega, I've never seen or heard of a human community in my world."

"It's funny how our dimensions have so many properties that are opposite… I wonder where Eggman Nega comes from then if you haven't heard of anything related to humans." The fox said.

"I haven't put much thought about Nega's origin, nor do I care about it. Right now I'm more concerned about the state of my world." Blaze bluntly answered. She felt bad enjoying her time here while she wasn't even certain the people of her world were safe. Were they aware that their time had been stopped or did something happen after she arrived here? Were they suffering? What about Marine? So many questions without answers and she could do nothing about it.

Tails wasn't sure what to answer to this, he wanted to apologize but Sonic started talking first.

"I'm sure everybody's fine Blaze, especially Marine; that girl can get through anything." The hedgehog said with a grin on his face.

Those words were enough to make the princess stop worrying. "Indeed." She said with a small smile before finishing her slice of pizza. Silence settled in as they trio simply enjoyed the view while eating their food, each to their own thoughts. Sonic was the first one to finish, he got up and started stretching. The hedgehog wasn't completely satisfied though, even by trying to ease the cat's worries he knew the overall mood of the group wasn't as high as before and he needed to do something about that first.

"How about we go and visit Cream after you're done eating? It's been a while since you last saw her Blaze, I'm sure she'll be happy to talk with you again." Sonic said.

"…We're NOT taking the plane again are we?"

"I don't know, maaaaybeeeeee we wi-" Blaze's hand suddenly fired up, a huge flame coming out of it which surprised both the hedgehog and the fox "-will run to Cream's house yes definitely of course!" Sonic finished his sentence hastily.

Tails chuckled "Since I can't run as fast as you guys I'll take the Tornado alone. Don't take too many detours alright? It'd be best if we all arrived at the same time."

"Yes mom." The hedgehog answered, pouting, making the fox laugh once more.

Tails and Blaze finished eating and, much to the cat's pleasure, quickly went back to the base of the clock tower. The trio accompanied Tails to his plane and made sure he took off safely before running in the direction of Vanilla's house.

* * *

><p>It only took twenty minutes for the trio to arrive near the large house; Tails had decided to land somewhere farther to avoid damaging the garden Vanilla and Cream both liked so much and thus, Blaze and Sonic were left alone at the front door, the hedgehog rang the bell.<p>

"Coming!" A voice inside said, it didn't sound like the rabbits at all. The door opened and a pink hedgehog appeared in front of them with a surprised expression on her face. "Sonic!" she said. Her face quickly changed from surprised to confused once she noticed the cat next to the hedgehog, she then went from shock to anger. "You!" Amy nearly shouted, pointing a finger at Blaze.

The cat wasn't sure of what was going on and of why the hedgehog looked so angrily at her, even Sonic looked lost. Carefully choosing her words, Blaze decided to speak up.

"Is something the matter?"


	7. Thorn In Your Heart

_Thorn In Your Heart_

The pink hedgehog stood at the door, in front of the cat and the blue hedgehog. The cat's answer to her sudden outburst was not one that pleased her. "What's the matter?! What's the matter?! You're the matter!"

Blaze was taken aback by Amy's words. She hadn't been in this world very long and yet somebody was already angry at her. Sonic reacted faster than Blaze could and tried to calm down the fuming hedgehog.

"What's going on Amy? Why are you so upset?" He asked. The pink hedgehog turned her head toward Sonic, she looked even angrier.

"You come here smiling, chatting and holding hands and you ask me why I'm upset?!"

"Uh, we weren't and we aren't holding hands. Look Amy, I think you're misunderstanding something here."

"I'm misunderstanding nothing!" She yelled as she pulled out a giant hammer out of seemingly nowhere and smashed the ground in front of her, leaving a huge dent in it. The duo avoided the attack by jumping away and safely landed on the grass a few meters away from the house. "Don't act innocent Sonic, it's everywhere on the news, you and that cat!"

'_That was dangerous. Where did she pull that hammer from?'_ Blaze thought. The cat had stopped listening to what Amy was saying as she didn't really understand what was happening until she tried to flatten both her and Sonic with her huge mallet. Blaze took a fighting stance while Sonic shook his head, the hedgehog wasn't about to get in a brawl with his friend.

"Amy, can we not fight and just talk about this? What's everywhere on the news?" The blue hedgehog slowly walked toward the pink one.

"As if you didn't know!" Amy answered, stomping the ground with her foot. "You, her, eating at your favorite place when it's past midnight and at a special table!"

"Oh that? It was just dinner between old friends, and nothing else." The hedgehog said. _'I wonder how the media caught wind of it…' _He was sure that the staff had taken away any cameras or anything similar from the few customers that were there when he and Blaze went to eat. _'That guy with the cameras might have had a hidden one.'_

"And you think I'm going to believe you? I don't remember you having any friend like her! Or maybe… she brainwashed you?! That's it! Don't worry Sonic; I'm going to save you now." Pushing the blue hedgehog away from her path before he had the time to say anything and quickly went near Blaze who was still in a fighting stance. She stopped a few feet away from the cat and pointed her hammer at her as if she was wielding a sword. "I'll take Sonic back, you evil seductress!"

Blaze still had no idea what was going through that girl's head, all she knew is that she had to brace herself for a fight. She noticed Sonic behind Amy, giving Blaze an apologetic smile while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, it was the second time the cat met one of his friends since she had come here and it ended up in a fight once more. The cat shook her head as if to say that it didn't matter. "Very well, come at me with all you have. This will be perfect for my daily training."

It seems like the comment about training did not please the pink hedgehog as she rushed at the cat and was the first to attack, attempting to strike directly Blaze with wide swings. Blaze quickly dodged and immediately countered with a kick, Amy quickly shielded herself with the hammer's handle. _'Those are some very fast reflexes.'_ Blaze thought, she followed up with a flurry of kicks aimed at the upper body which were almost all skillfully blocked by Amy, the cat feinted the last one and did a sweep kick, aiming for the legs which knocked Amy off her feet. Blaze attempted to punch Amy's stomach with her left hand while she was on the ground but was blocked once more by the hammer's handle, Amy then pushed the cat away before getting back up.

'_Good thing I didn't use my dominant hand, I shouldn't punch with the left one for a while.'_ The cat thought as she checked her left hand, the glove was slightly torn and the pain stung but it wasn't the worst she had to live through. Amy saw the opportunity and decided to take the initiative by rushing head first once more, attacking with smaller swings. At first it might have looked like Amy was just wildly swinging her hammer but the attacks were slowly getting harder and harder to avoid. Blaze's back suddenly hit the trunk of a tree, she realized she had been cornered. _'That is no fluke; she purposefully pushed me there.'_ She thought.

Amy swung down diagonally, Blaze, in an attempt to avoid the incoming attack, leaped over her; she spun in midair to keep facing Amy, who had destroyed the tree in half with that strike. The pink hedgehog wasn't done yet, using the momentum of her swing she spun around as well and threw her hammer with all her strength at Blaze who was still in the air. Having no other choice than using her powers, Blaze used an explosive burst of fire to thrust herself down much faster. Amy was shocked that the cat had managed to perfectly avoid her pinpointed attack; she didn't have any time to react as Blaze lunged at the hedgehog and punched her straight in the face, knocking her down. Amy sat up, groaning. That punch had hit her hard and had disoriented her a bit, she had troubles trying to stand up but eventually managed to do so.

The hedgehog was about to say something when she had a panicked expression on her face as she stared at something behind Blaze. The cat turned around to see the hammer coming back like a boomerang. Knowing that the hedgehog wouldn't be able to catch it, Blaze picked her up and dodged to the side, avoiding the hammer with a shocked Amy in her arms.

The hammer crashed into two trees and destroyed them both before stopping at the third one. Blaze was truly glad she hadn't been hit once by it, it might have been the end of her. She dropped Amy to the ground. "That settles today's training." Blaze said as she walked toward the entrance of the house. The pink hedgehog stood up, confused by the acts of her opponent.

"Why?" Was the only thing Amy managed to blurt out. Blaze stopped in her tracks and turned around to stare at Amy.

"Why what?"

"We're enemies, why did you save me?"

"Enemies? I never said we were; you only thought like that because your mind was clouded. I hope it has cleared up a bit."

Amy fell silent; she couldn't find an answer to this. She felt a hand on her shoulder; she looked up to see Sonic with a smile on his face. "Sonic!"

"Feeling better?" He asked.

The pink hedgehog looked down as she realized she had had another outburst of nonsense and had almost hurt somebody without even listening to what they had to say. "I'm sorry…" she muttered.

"Hey, it's alright, we all need to release some steam from time to time. I'm sure Blaze didn't mind either, right Blaze?"

"Indeed, it was a good workout." The cat said.

A new voice was heard from the inside of the house, one that Blaze recognized very easily. A tall bunny woman stood at the entrance of the house, looking around with a worried expression on her face. "Oh my, what happened here? I was cleaning and listening to the radio when I heard loud sounds of crashes…" Vanilla noticed Blaze, Amy and Sonic in that order. She remembered how worried Amy was about the rumor of a purple cat hanging out with Sonic and Vanilla immediately understood that a fight between the two girls had happened. "Is everybody alright?" The bunny said as she rushed to their side, having pulled a first aid kit out of nowhere. She closely inspected Amy as well as Blaze before applying an excessive amount of bandages to their wounds, the cat and the hedgehog didn't even have time to protest as Vanilla quickly took care of the bruises. It ended up with Amy's face being nearly completely covered, Blaze's left hand looking three times bigger thanks to the bandages and Sonic on the floor, laughing at both of the girls.

"Miss Vanilla, it has been a while." started Blaze.

"Yes it has, I wish we had met in more peaceful circumstances but I guess this is fine too. I'm so glad you came to see us today! How have you been? Did you eat three times a day and sleep eight hours every night?"

"…Miss Vanilla, I do not have the luxury to do as such."

The bunny let out a gasp. "That's very bad for your health Blaze; you won't grow anymore if you continue to live like this!"

The cat only smiled at Vanilla's retort. It felt nice to have somebody that cared about you, even if it was excessive in the rabbit mother's case.

Amy observed the interaction between Blaze and Vanilla. The bunny had never told her she had met somebody like that.

"You two know each other?" the hedgehog asked, struggling to take off the bandages on her face that didn't let her see much.

"That's right dear! She's a friend Cream came home with one day. How she came here is er… complicated. I'm sure Sonic can tell you about it." The blue hedgehog nodded and, much to Amy's pleasure, started to fill her in on what had happened to Blaze so far. Meanwhile, Vanilla had begun to talk to the cat once more. "I had a hunch you were the cat the rumor was talking about."

"The rumor that started this fight… I would like to know what it is about in detail."

"Of course." Vanilla then proceeded to inform Blaze of what she had heard on the radio. Apparently the media had received photos from an anonymous sender with written details on how Sonic entered his favorite fast-food at an unusual hour with an unusual guest. Of course the medias clearly had taken advantage of it to transform it into something much bigger.

'_Just as I expected, they twisted the truth… in a strange way. Had it been my dimension…' _ The cat thought. She was snapped back to reality as she felt something behind her tugging on her jacket. Blaze turned around to see a rabbit smaller than Vanilla with a very big smile on her face. "Cream!"

"Blaze!" Cream tackled the surprised cat with a hug, making both her and Blaze fall to the ground. "I'm so happy you're here, I missed you so much!" The bunny said as she buried her face in Blaze's chest. The cat hesitated a moment before hugging back Cream. "Did you miss me? Did you?"

Blaze got up with Cream as everybody else had watched, with mixed reactions. Sonic had his usual mocking smirk, obviously enjoying the embarrassment showing on the cat's face, while Amy and Vanilla both were giggling at how adorable Cream acted.

"Ahem, I did, Cream." Blaze declared, which made Cream overly happy. Vanilla was smiling sweetly until she realized they had been outside all this time when they could have been sitting comfortably inside of her house.

"Oh my, how rude of me to make my guests wait outside! Let's go inside, I'll prepare tea for everybody. Sonic if you would be a dear to clean a bit of the mess done by the battle, I would greatly appreciate it; I'll reward you with a homemade chili dog." The older bunny said, motioning the group aside from Sonic to follow her inside the house. Amy was the first one to go while Cream, dragging Blaze by her hand almost forcefully, hurried behind the pink hedgehog.

"Consider the garden like new already!" Said Sonic as he became a blur and immediately got to work.

* * *

><p>After showing her guests to the living room, Vanilla left them to go and prepare some tea. That gave ample time for Blaze to take off the bandages and correctly apply the first aid that Vanilla had left on the table before leaving. She took care of her hand very swiftly before tending to Amy. The pink hedgehog's left eye was slightly black under and her nose had a bit of dried blood on it but nothing too bad, thankfully. Once she was done cleaning the blood on her nose, Blaze put ointment under Amy's eye and only put the necessary amount of bandage over it.<p>

"Thank you… I-is it alright for you to patch me up? After everything I did to you…"

The cat shrugged. "It happens." She answered nonchalantly.

"What do you mean "it happens"? I could have hurt you- no, I did hurt you, just looking at your hand makes me wince in pain…"

"That was my fault; I made a mistake and punched that hammer of yours. My hand is not broken though so you shouldn't worry about it. I've had much worse than this." The cat checked her hand out, verifying once more that the bandages were put correctly. "You've already apologized as well, so everything is fine now."

Amy stayed silent after hearing this. She herself hadn't been in a lot of fights where she got injured badly, not even a bruise similar to Blaze's current one; she started wondering if the cat had been through fights where she had truly suffered terrible injuries. If anything, Blaze was really good at applying first aids.

The pink hedgehog tried to launch another conversation, feeling uneasy. "I heard you were a princess, is that right? So,um… How's life as a princess… from another dimension?" Amy hadn't understood everything Sonic had told her, but even so she got the gist of it. While the whole parallel world ordeal was confusing for her, she knew that she was talking to royalty; something she had never done before.

The cat took a few seconds before answering, memories from the past coming in her mind as she heard the word "princess". "I am more a guardian than a princess; I won't explain why as it would take too long." Blaze looked at Amy straight in the eyes before speaking once more. "I feel like you are nervous when talking to me, perhaps it is because Sonic told you that I was of royal blood? If that is the case then rest assured, I've never been one to see the differences between nobles and commoners. That's why you should freely speak your mind when discussing with me."

It was true that Amy felt uncomfortable right now and that facing somebody important in society was a part of it. It was only a small part though, the fact that she was currently trying to have a casual conversation with a person she recently tried to destroy out of madness was what bothered her so much. Blaze seeming to care so little about this too surprised the pink hedgehog a lot as well.

"I see…"

Silence settled in once more, much to Amy's dismay. The only sound that could be heard in the room was Cream's soft breath, the bunny had fallen asleep on Blaze's shoulder, she had played all day and ended up tiring herself out. Amy was about to break the silence again but Blaze spoke faster.

"I feel like I should thank you for that fight."

At this point, Amy was completely lost. "…Huh?" was the only thing she managed to say.

"It relieved a lot of stress, let's just say that I was slightly worried by how my world is currently faring, it also helped me do a part of my daily training." The cat smiled slightly at the hedgehog. "So thank you."

"You're welcome! I guess?" Amy laughed, not feeling uneasy anymore. "You know Blaze, you're weird but you sure are a nice girl!" The tension in the air that Amy had felt wasn't there anymore, she felt like she could talk casually with the cat.

A loud gust of wind came in the room as Sonic appeared in front of the girls, waking up Cream by accident.

"Wah!" the poor bunny exclaimed, jumping out of the couch and nearly falling on the floor. Sonic swiftly caught her before anything bad happened.

"Whoops." Sonic said "Sorry about that!" He then placed her back on the couch. The bunny thanked Sonic through yawns before immediately falling asleep once more, this time resting her head on the cat's lap before Blaze even had time to protest. "Anyway, I'm done with taking care of the garden, looks like you guys made up too! And you know what this means? It means that it's homemade chili dog time!" Just as the hedgehog happily exclaimed this, Vanilla entered the room with a large plate with multiple snacks, cups and of course, the hot dogs Sonic had been waiting for on it.

"I hope I didn't make my guests wait too much. Let's eat outside in the backyard, there's still plenty of sun left for us to enjoy." Vanilla said. Everybody nodded, Blaze nudged Cream a bit to wake her up but didn't manage to do so, Vanilla asked Blaze to carry the bunny with her so that she wouldn't miss on the sunlight and that once outside, she would quickly wake up and be in the mood to play once more. The cat sighed, but did as ordered, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Once outside everybody, aside from Cream who was still asleep, helped Vanilla to put everything needed on the round table that was in front of the garden before sitting down on the chairs placed around the table. They then all started eating and talking casually about everything and nothing.

"By the way Blaze, how did you avoid my last attack?" Amy asked.

"That was just her-" Sonic started but was immediately cut by Blaze.

"Simply a petty trick, and like any good magician, I can't reveal the secrets to it." Blaze said. Sonic raised an eyebrow as the cat gave him a quick look, almost something that looked like a glare, that went unnoticed by the rest of the table.

"Oh wow, you can do magic tricks?! Like with the cards and all?!" Amy exclaimed, very excitedly, waking up Cream in the process who quickly joined the discussion after hearing that her best friend from another dimension could do things any children of her age loved to see.

"I trained a bit when I had a little bit of spare time back home with cards, so I know a thing or two."

"Can you show us?" Cream asked, her eyes practically glowing from excitement.

"After eating you can play all you want with Blaze my dear." Vanilla said. Cream nodded and started eating whatever was in front of her.

"I just wish to confirm something Amy, it's because Sonic ate with me alone that you were angry after me, is that right?" The pink hedgehog nodded, her ears dropping a bit, it wasn't something she was very proud of and would have rather not have the cat bring up the conversation again… "Then it would only be fair of Sonic to dine with you as well in a similar manner." Amy immediately brightened up while Sonic swallowed his chili dog by mistake and immediately started coughing. _'Ho, an unexpected reaction from him.' _The cat thought in delight.

"R-Really?!" The pink hedgehog exclaimed.

"Of course, there's no way Sonic would disagree with me." Blaze then, with a coy smirk, turned to stare at the hedgehog who looked like he had been asked to swim through the sea. "It would be rude of you to not treat all your friends equally, isn't that right Sonic?"

The poor blue blur struggled to find an answer. "Erm… err…" was all the sounds that came out of his mouth.

"What's this Sonic? Don't tell me you're going to refuse the request of a fair maiden?" Blaze said. Amy stared at Sonic with the eyes of a beaten puppy while Vanilla was silently giggling.

"…Alright." Sonic said with a sigh. Amy jumped out of her chair and gave Blaze a hug, almost making her fall out of her own seat.

"Blaze, you're the best friend EVER." She nearly shouted the cat's ears, making Blaze cringe slightly.

"Y-you're welcome." Blaze said. The pink hedgehog got off her and started dancing with Cream who hadn't really listened mostly because of how busy she was trying to imagine what kind of magic trick Blaze could pull off. The bunny still went with the flow and merrily danced alongside Amy. "Ahem, how about tomorrow night then? Same place, same hour. It will give both of you ample time to prepare yourselves." Sonic looked at Blaze, who understood that he was wondering what she was going to do while they were eating.

"Why don't you go and visit your new friend while I'm not there? I bet she'll be happy to see you." Suggested the hedgehog.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." The cat answered, remembering the VIP card she had gotten from Rouge.

Cream's ears perked up at the word "friend". "Can I come too?" Asked the bunny.

"I highly doubt your mother would let me take you to the place I'm going."

"What kind of place is it Blaze?" Vanilla asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure if you know much about Rouge, a bat, she apparently has a nightclub and she invited me to join her there." The cat explained. Cream's ears dropped, expecting her mother to obviously forbid her to go to such a place.

"Though I know her name, I haven't talked much with Rouge. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't let her go but considering you're in our world for only a limited amount of time, I'll allow Cream to go with you." Vanilla said, though still hesitant. "If she is a friend of yours then I believe I can trust her."

Cream beamed once she heard that her mother would allow her to tag along her best friend. "Really mom? Thanks!"

"Very well then, I'll make sure that nothing happens to Cream, and if something does happen I will take full responsibility for it. I'll come to pick her up tomorrow night."

"I'm counting on you Blaze." Vanilla said.

With that, the conversation went back to talking about everything and nothing, except Sonic wasn't as happy as before while Amy was overjoyed. Once done, Amy and Blaze were both pulled by Cream to play with her and Cheese while Sonic stayed at the table alongside Vanilla and started talking about what had happened so far to Blaze.

Tails finally appeared and greeted everybody, apparently his plane had some mechanical problems he noticed once he landed and couldn't help but fix them right away, which took him much longer than he had expected. He too was suddenly and forcefully pulled by Cream to play with her and the two other girls. Blaze did a few magic tricks using a pack of cards Cream had handed her, catching the attention of the younger group. After a bit, Vanilla and Sonic joined in the fun as well, the hedgehog trying to be as silly as possible while showing off cool moves such as handstands.

Because of Cream; Blaze, Sonic, Tails and Amy all stayed until late afternoon, when the bunny was finally completely exhausted. After saying goodbye, Tails took Amy in her plane and flew her home while Sonic, followed by Blaze, ran to the blue blur's house.

Obviously, the hedgehog had decided to take long paths and detours to make the trip "more enjoyable".

* * *

><p>Once arriving at his house, Sonic jumped straight into his couch, not caring about making holes in it with his spikes. "Man I'm exhausted! I never thought that playing with a little girl could take so much energy from you." The blue blur said, sitting correctly so that Blaze would have enough space to sit down as well.<p>

Blaze entered the house, seemingly out of breath. "We've ran at full speed for a whole hour and yet Cream is the one that made you tired?" She sat down, muttering a small thank you.

"Okay so maybe that run tired me a little tiny bit, but have you seen how much energy that kid has? If she had the same speed as me she'd probably last longer than me in a three hour race."

"…Three hour race? Did you really run at top speed for three hours straight?"

"Yeah! I think I ran a bit more than half of the planet. Running on the water was the toughest part but it was really fun."

"You're the craziest person I've ever met." She said with a sigh, closing her eyes as she rested her head on the top of the couch.

The hedgehog chuckled at that comment. "You're not the first one to tell me that."

None of them spoke anymore, enjoying the silence that had settled in. They started the day with little sleep and had worn themselves out. There was still something that had happened that day that bothered Sonic.

"So, why didn't you want me to say that you had fire powers to Amy? Now that I think about it, you avoided using it even against Rouge, the only moment you did use it was when she wasn't looking or when it was your only way to avoid Amy's hammer throw." He started. Blaze slightly opened her eyes up, knowing he would bring the subject up.

"I apologize for the look I gave you but I would prefer if my powers remained secret. I do not wish for the same things to happen here as they happened in my world."

"You can trust my friends Blaze, they're all an odd bunch, I'm sure they wouldn't judge you for your powers."

"How can you be so certain of it Sonic?"

"Because I trust my friends."

"Sonic, your friends are not as fearless as you are."

Sonic sat up, leaving holes in the sofa because of his quills, and raised an eyebrow at the cat. "What do you mean by that?"

"Do you honestly believe normal persons are not afraid of fire? By normal persons I don't mean you, me and anybody strong enough to go through an inferno without blinking. Unlike the other, natural elements of the world, fire has always been considered as the most dangerous and the most uncontrollable one. Even with all of its practical uses, it is always regarded in a very negative way. Of course, you would think that being able to control and tame even the hottest flames would make people look up to you but in reality this is not what they see Sonic. Do you know what they truly see?"

Sonic didn't answer.

"What they see is an individual having control over the most dangerous element known to living beings. It doesn't matter how hard said individual tries, he will forever be regarded as a threat, as a monster."

Silence settled in once more for a few seconds as Blaze stared at the ground, her eyes felt emptier than Sonic had ever seen them before. There were no emotions, no sadness, no anger, no pain, almost as if the cat was used to this and for Sonic it was worse than anything else. _'What the heck did she go through?'_ was the first thing he thought of. After another few seconds of complete silence, the cat stood up.

"I apologize for blabbering about useless things like the past; it looks like I've ruined an enjoyable moment of rest for both of us. I will now head to my room, goodnight Sonic." Blaze said as she started to climb upstairs. Before she could even take a step further, the blue blur suddenly appeared on the step above.

"You're far from a monster." The hedgehog started. Blaze looked up in surprise, staring at Sonic's eyes. "People may be afraid of your power, but I'm sure that if you work hard enough, then everything will work out in the end. One day, you'll be rewarded for everything you've done, I'm over a hundred percent sure of this, my gut instinct is never wrong." Blaze stayed silent the whole time, shocked at the hedgehog's sudden speech, yet she couldn't help but listen and take in every word he spouted. "You're one of the kindest person I personally know of. Sure, you've got a bit of a temper, but who doesn't? And even if someday, it gets out of control, I'll be there to calm down your flames by creating a strong enough whirlwind."

Blaze felt multiple emotions rising inside of her; she barely had time to express anything as Sonic continued talking.

"And two more things: First, the past isn't something useless, so you can rant all you want about it, especially to me. If you ever feel like talking about it, I'm here, alright? And second thing…" The hedgehog, with a smirk, cracked his knuckles before continuing "If anybody ever calls you a monster, demon or whatever the heck that's not a good thing, I'll punch 'em right in the face, whether you like it or not."

All of the emotions Blaze felt rising had reached a boiling point. The cat suddenly burst out laughing, surprising Sonic. "You truly are the craziest person I've ever met." She said with a smile, a sincere one. She continued to travel upstairs, muttering a barely inaudible "Thank you." when she was next to the hedgehog before heading to her room.

Sonic sighed in relief, heading to his own room and right as he passed next to the guest bedroom, the hedgehog spoke.

"You're welcome, goodnight Blaze."

* * *

><p><strong>I really like to think of Blaze as the forgiving kind to anybody who doesn't have any real evil intent. She doesn't seem like she would hold a grudge against anybody that didn't really mean to do harm.<strong>


	8. Equally Cursed

_Equally Cursed_

The smell of alcohol lingered in the air, tickling the nostrils of a hedgehog lying on a couch in the middle of what looked like a large hotel room. His eyelids slowly opened, he stared at the ceiling a few seconds, trying to remember what had exactly happened the night , the pain shot in his head, with a grunt he rubbed his forehead to try to ease the pain down, alas to no avail.

The hedgehog sat up and looked around, trying to understand where he was exactly.

The room looked familiar to him, with its multiple, out-of-price furniture neatly placed around, most, if not all of them, having diamonds incrusted in them. The hedgehog noticed a frame on a drawer near where he sat. On it was a large, red robot, on the right a bat with a wide smirk, posing for the camera. And on the left was himself, his arms crossed, and his expression as sour as always.

If you looked closely enough though, it didn't look like the hedgehog wasn't appreciating at all the moment, the corners of his mouth were very, very slightly turned upward. Only somebody with incredible vision or special tools would be able to notice that little detail, one little detail the hedgehog always noticed first whenever he saw the picture.

"Has the dark prince woken up yet?" suddenly teased an all too familiar voice the hedgehog recognized. Turning his head toward the source of the sound, his eyes met with the same bat that was in the picture, wearing the same teasing smirk. She was wearing her usual suit as well, except she hadn't put the boots on yet and was still putting the gloves on.

"Rouge, what am I doing here?"

"Good morning to you too Shady, you really need to work on your greetings you know, you'll never get any girl that way."

"Hmph, as if I cared about that. Now tell me, what am I doing here?"

"You'll never learn but I guess that's part of your charm too, some women really like that kind of attitude." She gave the dark hedgehog a wink, to which he answered by rolling his eyes. "Anyway if you don't remember, when you entered my club last night, you were challenged to a drinking contest. You won, obviously I had to drag you back to somewhere safe after all the stuff you drank." The bat explained.

'_Right…'_ The hedgehog slightly groaned in pain as he recalled the events of the night. Once more, one of those foolish individual had tried to challenge him… To a drinking contest. Event like that had become more often because of the hedgehog's pride.

The first time it had happened, the hedgehog had been forced to hang out at the nightclub by Rouge herself, though he was staying at the bar the whole time. A cocky animal had the idea the mock the hedgehog for not having a glass in his hands and to challenge him to a drinking contest, insulting him along the way. The dark hedgehog accepted the challenge.

It was an overwhelming victory for Shadow; alcohol didn't seem to affect his ultimate body much.

Many were the one that tried to challenge him and win, only to fail again and again. Much to Shadow's displeasure, his popularity rose fast and many people entered the club only to see that kind of event. Rouge wasted no time as well to make the popularity of her own nightclub rise and make profits whenever the hedgehog was here.

Sighing, the hedgehog laid back on the couch, closing his eyes and continuing to rub his forehead.

"Looks like even alcohol can affect the ultimate life form's brain huh? Well after 33 shots, I'm sure nothing alive would be able stand correctly." Said the bat. Shadow decided to completely ignore that comment.

"Anything new from GUN?" he asked. Though he couldn't see it, Rouge shook her head.

"Nope. No sightings of eggman, or aliens, or monsters of the underworld and most importantly no stupid scouting missions. The world is as peaceful as it can be."

'_Nothing? That's unexpected.' _ Shadow thought.

"I doubt you're in any condition to go on a mission anyway Shady."

"Ten minutes, give or take, and I'll be normal."

"Oh oh, ten minutes? That's ample time for me to do… this!" Rouge suddenly jumped and swooped down on Shadow, whose eyes opened in surprise. The bat barely touched Shadow before she jumped back to the front of the couch, a green emerald in her hand. "Mine for a few minutes!" she exclaimed, hugging it tightly as if she was in love with the jewel. "I can never get enough of that gleam!"

"…Whatever." The dark hedgehog closed his eyes again, not caring that Rouge had stolen his chaos emerald right under his nose. He knew that the jewel was in good hands, that he could get it back anytime he wanted and that Rouge wouldn't be too irresponsible with it.

"By the way Shadow, I was thinking that since we haven't had a mission yet, how about we go treasure hunting? It'd make Omega happy as well."

"If you've got Omega with you then you don't need me."

"C'mon you need some fresh air after all you drank! And a gorgeous lady like me needs at least two men by her side to protect her from villains."

"Hmph." Was all the hedgehog decided to answer. The bat pouted, her facial expression quickly changed as she had found an idea that would make him react.

"Hmmm then if you're not coming, that means I can keep the emerald for myself… Right?" She said as she started juggling the jewel in her hand, a smirk on her face. She then felt a gust of wind and saw Shadow disappear for a split second before he came back to the same position he was before. Rouge's hand waited as she saw that the emerald she had previously thrown wasn't falling back, until she saw that the jewel was in the hedgehog's hand. "Hey, I thought you said ten minutes before you could do that kind of stuff, it's not even been five!"

"I did say give or take." Shadow then stood up and stretched his legs a bit before walking toward the window, opening it. He knew the bat wouldn't stop annoying him until she got him to come with her. It had been a while since the three had been reunited together, GUN considered each efficient enough to send them on their own separate missions. Even if Omega wasn't officially part of GUN, he had still, sometimes unintentionally, helped them a lot. "Let's go get Omega so we can all have some "fresh air", as you put it." He then jumped from the window.

Rouge grinned. "As shy as ever, isn't he? … He could've gone through the door rather than jump out of the window though." The bat then closed the window and locked it before getting out of the room herself, locking the door behind. "Just like old times."

* * *

><p>The familiar sound of the sea and seagull cries had woken up the cat. Her first action was to look at the clock near her. It was five in the morning. <em>'I overslept.'<em> The cat thought. After cleaning herself up, Blaze got out of her room and went downstairs. The sun had just started to rise; the rays giving enough light to make navigating the living room an easy task for the cat. She sat on the couch, thinking what to do next.

It was one of the rare times Blaze had nothing to do in the morning; since she usually protected the sol emeralds from pirates and the like, she had to be aware at all time, even when she slept and especially during morning, the time where pirates have the most confidence. _'Maybe I should go back to sleep? No, that would give me bad habits. Or maybe I could do some training? Then again I don't want to go outside right away; training here would wake up Sonic too…'_

Those rare mornings were something she enjoyed very much even if it always made it difficult for her to choose to do something. This was usually the time where she would pull out her pack of card and try to learn new tricks with it, mostly to shut up Marine but she always thought that one day, she'd have been able to show them to Cream. She was quite happy that she had done so yesterday even if she didn't show it.

An idea came to the cat as she remembered what had happened yesterday as Vanilla's words rang in her ears, something about having three meals every day. Blaze knew she couldn't eat properly when she was in her world, protecting the emeralds. But now she had time to do so and decided she might as well try to cook something up, she should try to eat healthily while she could.

The cat entered the kitchen and took a look at the few tools at her disposal. Judging from the burnt state of one of the frying pans, the hedgehog surely had tried to do something by himself only to have it end up as a disaster. Blaze sneered at the thought of Sonic attempting to cook and panicking once things got out of control.

She noticed a small, red book next to the cooking tools and upon closer inspection she read on the cover "How to become a chef in thirty easy steps, by Miles Tails Prower". _'Thirty steps? Sonic wouldn't have the patience to read more than five of them, no wonder he'd manage to burn a frying pan.'_ The cat thought.

She decided to take a look at the contents of the book and opened it up on the first page, it started on explaining which tool was which and for what they were used; the next few pages described the ingredients and then finally started talking about the recipes. The instructions were well detailed, if not too much. The fox had even bothered to write in mathematical formulas as well as putting in some drawings sometimes overlapping with the text and making it difficult to read.

Blaze got to the part where there was a list of recipes for breakfast. Picking a random one and turning to the appointed page, the cat ended up on the pancakes recipe, which didn't look too complicated from what she saw.

After reading the instructions three times, Blaze started working on the pancakes. Thankfully, she managed to find every ingredient she needed and immediately got to work and got it right on her first try. "That wasn't so difficult. Let's make more…"

After repeating the same steps multiple times, the cat ended up with twelve delicious looking pancakes, six for her and six for Sonic, she thought it would be enough for them. She looked back at the book, the recipe wasn't done yet, she needed to put something called maple syrup on it. Blaze searched through the drawers and the fridge but didn't find any. She took the book and tried to see if there was an alternative to it. _'Honey? There was one pot in the drawers.'_ She took it and poured the content slightly on the food.

The cat suddenly heard a scream, it came from upstairs. Dropping everything, Blaze rushed to Sonic's room and forced the door open with a kick, a flame in her hand ready to be thrown at whatever had attacked him. "Sonic, are you alright?!"

* * *

><p>We shall now go back a bit before Sonic screamed. The hedgehog was still asleep and peaceful, that is until his dreams took a very strange turn.<p>

One second he was running in a giant field of flowers and next thing he knew was that he was inside of a church, or so he thought judging by the large representation of a crucified man.

Wearing a suit that somehow didn't have any holes made by his back spikes and had a flower bouquet in his hands, the hedgehog inspected the place. The church was full, he wasn't able to distinguish the faces of the people that were seated near him and even less those that were slightly farther, they all were darkened for some reason.

"Man, this suit is itchy." The hedgehog complained.

Music played as the large doors from the other side of the room pried open, revealing another person entering. The individual was covered from head to toe with an exaggerated wedding dress, it was so large that Sonic couldn't even make out the shape of who was inside. Yet it seemed like the person had no trouble walking in it at all and soon arrived at the altar, where the individual faced Sonic. Suddenly, a priest came crashing down right in front of them before getting up and nonchalantly cleaned the dust off his clothes before staring intensely at Sonic.

"Heaven is waiting for me!" Was all the priest said before he stormed out of the church, mumbling more hedgehog shrugged before staring back at the person in the wedding dress.

Part of him was curious of whom it was and another part had been trying to guess the whole time. His first thought had been Amy; the date with her having been forced on him by Blaze probably had affected him more than he liked to admit. He didn't bother trying to guess anymore as curiosity forced him to take action, he just hoped it wouldn't be Knuckles, or Shadow.

The hedgehog slowly lifted the veil of the presumed wife and immediately jumped back, startled at what he had just discovered.

"What's wrong, m'dear? Isn't this ceremony egg-squisite?" A masculine voice coming from the dress said. Sonic completely recognized the voice of his nemesis; his dream had just turned into a nightmare. "Don't be shy and come kiss the bride!"

Sonic slowly walked backward. "Oh god why is this happening to me. Eggman just please stay where you are and don't try to approach me alright."

"Oh darling it's been a while since you called me this, it seems you're just as happy as I am for our marriage. Now let's kiss and live happily ever after!" The veil on Eggman's head came off, his moustache much bigger than Sonic remembered, and he lunged at the hedgehog, who screamed in horror.

"AAAAH!"

Sonic found himself in his bed, sweating and breathing heavily. His door was suddenly slammed against the wall as Blaze entered the room with her fist lit up and ready for a fight.

"Sonic, are you alright?!"

The hedgehog stared at the cat, a few moments of silence passing before he spoke up. "Blaze, can you please pinch me as hard as you can?"

Blaze raised a brow but immediately executed the orders given to her. She carefully walked toward the bed, her left hand still burning and then squeezed a bit of the hedgehog's arm, who winced at the slight pain caused by the pressure of the cat's fingers.

"Ow! Okay that means I'm not dreaming anymore, thanks." Sonic sighed in relief; that was the craziest dream he ever had and hoped it would be the last one. He shivered at the thought of Eggman in a wedding dress; that was something that would be engraved in his mind forever.

Sonic then noticed that the cat was looking around carefully, her eyes shifting from side to side and her hand alit. "Are we under attack?" She asked.

The hedgehog scratched his head before understanding the situation: his scream had alerted the cat. "We aren't, I wouldn't scream if that was the case." He answered with a sheepish smile.

"Yes, you definitely wouldn't. What happened then?" She asked, putting the fire in her hand away.

"I just had a bad dream." He answered.

"Do you wish to talk about it? As… as a friend, that's the least I can do, right?"

"Honestly Blaze it's very nice of you to care about it but I really doubt it'd be a good idea."

"Why is that?"

"That nightmare was really crazy and creepy."

"Then, it's another reason to talk about it. The more the dream had an impact on you, the more beneficial it will be to talk about it, or so I've heard."

"No I mean, you REALLY don't want to know what I saw, it was the scariest thing my brain has ever thought of."

"I insist."

Sonic sighed in defeat. "Fine… Who taught you to be so stubborn anyway?"

"I wonder…" she said, staring at Sonic, a hint of a grin showing on her lips, to which Sonic answered with a smirk. "Before you start describing your dream, I would recommend taking off the pillow that has been pierced by your quills." Blaze pointed out.

The hedgehog touched the back of his head and did feel something soft. He took off the pillow and put it back on the bed, deciding that he would deal with it later.

"Okay so um, the dream started like this: I was just running by myself and then I find myself in front of a freaky church and – Wait, do you even have churches in your world?"

Blaze nodded. "That's a religious building right? There are a few in my native land."

"Alright then. So I enter the church and I end up wearing classy clothes. Then, I see somebody wearing a wedding dress, and there's this weird priest that falls from the sky. Then he leaves and I'm alone with the person wearing the dress. And then…" Sonic paused, making a grim face as he recalled the moment he feared the most.

"And then?"

"Do I really have to tell you what happens next?"

"You've come this far, you might as well go all the way."

"Ugh… Alright." The hedgehog sighed deeply before continuing. "I lift the veil out of the supposed wife's face to see who it is and then... well it was Eggman and he kinda uh... forced himself on me and I finally woke up… Good lord, I'm glad that I woke up." Sonic said, shivering once more at the thought of it while Blaze's eyes slightly widened. "Oh and the suit I was wearing was really itchy too, that was pretty annoying." The hedgehog added.

"…I'm not sure of what to say there Sonic, I can't even laugh because of how disturbing that nightmare is, I can try and decipher a bit of the dream's meaning if you want me to."

The hedgehog scratched his chin a few seconds, unsure if he wanted to know what his mind wanted to tell him. "Go ahead, that makes me kinda curious." He finally answered, eagerly awaiting for the cat's analysis. "You can sit on the bed y'know, I doubt it's very comfortable to stay up like that."

"Thank you for the offer." Blaze sat down on the bed while Sonic backed off a bit to give her more space. "First of all, it seems that the main theme of your dream is marriage, and aside from the strange priest, I can make a bit of sense of the rest." The cat started, still trying to put together the pieces of the hedgehog's dreams. "The church, which is the symbolic place for weddings in your world from what you've told me, made you stop your run, something you love to do." Sonic nodded in confirmation to her statement.

"Next is the suit you wore, it made you feel uncomfortable. I am uncertain but I believe this might be because a suit restrains movements. As for Robotnik in the wedding dress well, um…" Blaze tried to try and give some meaning to the situation but just thinking about the situation wanted to make her grimace. "Since he constantly tries to trap you, you might be considering marriage as something that takes away your freedom, much like many of Robotnik's tricks and inventions."

"That or I have some really weird fantasies." Sonic answered with a grin which made the cat slightly smile. "I don't really understand why I would dream about marriage in particular though, I don't even have a girlfriend." He pondered.

"It could be that you're thinking too much of your appointment tonight with Amy, or maybe you're worrying over our current situation with us being forced to wait." Blaze said, making the hedgehog scratch his head, seemingly more confused than before. "A mind is one's most complicated system, there's no point in dwelling too much on a dream Sonic."

After a few more moments, the hedgehog gave her a smile. "I guess you're right. You're pretty good at this dream explaining business, I didn't know you were into that." The hedgehog pointed out.

"That was just observation and logic Sonic, nothing too extravagant. While psychology did interest me as a subject as well, I regrettably couldn't study it as much as I wanted to." She looked nostalgic for a second but quickly went back to her usual mood. "Do you feel better now though?"

"Yeah definitely, thanks I guess. I'm really glad I didn't have to tell Tails about this, or anybody else than you, really. Knuckles would've teased me for life about it, Amy and Tails would've sent me to mental asylum." Sonic said with a chuckle, which made Blaze wonder if that would've truly happened, on the other hand she definitely could imagine Amy reacting that way.

"I'm happy I was of use." The cat simply answered with a smile. "A-and if you ever need to talk about something again, because we're f-friends right?" It almost felt as Blaze was forcing herself to say those words as she blushed red with embarrassment, quickly turning her stare away from the hedgehog.

'_She's making progress.' _Sonic thought, which pleased him. He was glad that Blaze was trying to come out of her shell on her own after all that time, and even if she might be slightly awkward at first, Sonic always thought that she was somebody fun to hang out with once you knew her."Of course, I can count on you for that." He answered with a smile, which made the cat sigh in relief.

"How about we go and eat then? I've prepared breakfast."

The hedgehog looked surprised when he heard that statement.

"Before you say anything, consider it as a thanks to letting me live in your house, I wouldn't feel at ease if I didn't do anything to help you here."

"I know you Blaze so I expected you to do something like that, but I didn't know you could cook though. Y'know, you being a princess and all that."

Blaze raised an eyebrow at the hedgehog. "Really Sonic, I'm a fire wielding princess that fights evil daily and me being able to cook is what you're surprised of?"

"Hey I'm the fastest thing alive and well known hero and I can't cook at all." He protested in his defense.

"I know, I noticed the poor state one of the frying pan was in. It felt almost painful to look at it. Perhaps you wish to talk about this experience as well?" She answered with a coy smirk. The hedgehog looked slightly embarrassed, knowing exactly what the cat was talking about.

"Let's just go and eat breakfast." Sonic immediately dashed to the kitchen. Just before Blaze followed, she noticed from the corner of her eye a desk with photos on it. She recognized the same one that was in the guest room, the one with Tails, Sonic and the red echidna. There were more photos, one with Amy, another with Cream and Vanilla and a few others with people she didn't know.

"He has so many friends…" She said with a tone that almost sounded envious, once she realized this the cat immediately shook her head before going downstairs.

* * *

><p>"I really don't think this is a good idea Blaze." The blue hedgehog said, staring down toward a beach.<p>

After having eaten breakfast, Blaze had talked Sonic into working out just like she did every morning back in her dimension. He had agreed thinking that it would be lots of fun and while he did enjoy training with a partner with various activities different from his usual morning jog, he felt cold sweat when he was reminded of what he had told her yesterday.

They were now slightly farther from the blue blur's house at the top of a cliff, a large area of sand at the bottom of it. From the look of it, aside from jumping straight from the cliff, there was no way to reach the beach.

"A man always keeps his word, Sonic." The cat replied, her gaze not moving from the bottom of the area.

"Well technically I'm not a ma-" The hedgehog didn't have time to finish his sentence before Blaze jumped down. Sonic sighed before doing the same, landing on the soft sand without any injuries.

"So, where's that boat of yours?" Blaze asked. She had been surprised that the water-phobic hedgehog did have his very own boat when she reminded him of the boat trip he owed her.

Sonic pointed in the direction of a small opening in the rocks at the end of beach. "It's in there. It must have gathered a ton of dust since I've never used it before."

Before the cat could think of anything, the hedgehog raced to the entrance. She followed him and ended up in a dimly lit cave, some light bulbs on the walls with wires loosely hanging from them, a few boxes scattered across the metal floor with written on them "SPARE PARTS". It looked somebody, most likely Tails she thought, had been working on the place and had then forgotten about it entirely.

What caught her eyes next was the much bigger than expected boat in the middle of the cave, nearly as large as the Ocean Tornado, one of the ships Marine and Tails had built together when Sonic was stuck in her world. The boat wasn't as colorful, in fact it didn't have any color other than the natural gray color the metal had.

"Why would you even get a ship? I doubted you of all people would enjoy taking trips to the sea but now that you've confirmed that you've never sailed with it once confuses me. What was the point of getting it?" The cat hadn't taken her eyes off the boat in question the whole time she had spoken. The hedgehog remembered exactly why he had this ship and placed a hand on the hull.

"That was Tails' idea. Once we got back from your world, he really wanted to make a ship of his own. I got him the place and the tools as well as the base of the boat. To me it seemed like he was just afraid he might forget about you and Marine." Sonic hopped on the boat, his gloved hand touching the metallic surface, it wasn't as dusty as he thought it would be. "He didn't have much time to take care of it these past months but I'm sure he'll quickly come back now that you're here." He smirked at the cat that had jumped next to him.

"I wasn't aware Tails was this…"

"Sensitive?" Sonic finished for her. "I know, he hides it pretty well but nothing can get past big brother's eyes. It's not often that he finds somebody that shares his brain and his age y'know, he really liked working with Marine to save the world."

Blaze didn't answer. During her adventures with Sonic, the person she least bonded with was Tails. While she did consider Cream, Marine and Sonic as close friends after a while, the fox had always felt more distant to her. Why, she wasn't sure, perhaps she was much more wary of intelligent individuals, or perhaps it was because Tails was unusually reserved for a boy of his age. The last time she saw him didn't leave her a bad impression as she had learnt a lot from him and it looked like he had enjoyed explaining. She decided that she would visit him later today to strengthen the bond between him and her, but for now she focused at the task at hand.

"Is this boat operational?" The cat asked.

"It is, I don't think it has weapons or stuff like that in it though yet, good thing there aren't many pirates in this world." The hedgehog replied. Blaze nodded and headed to the ship wheel as she grabbed hold of it.

"Let's go then."

The duo set sail as the ship moved, carried by the wind and moving farther and farther from the shore.

* * *

><p>It only had taken 10 minutes before Blaze decided to stop the ship from moving entirely. Aside from the shore they could see from afar, they were isolated from land.<p>

"What's up?" The hedgehog asked.

The cat left from the ship wheel, turned around and started stretching. "We've arrived." Sonic raised an eyebrow, curious that they had stopped in the middle of the sea. "Don't tell me you thought all I wanted was to sail around mindlessly after what you've pulled me through yesterday?" Blaze said as she started to look at the horizon, feeling the wind slowly starting to become fiercer. "If my predictions are correct, the waves should get harsher in less than five minutes." The cat started stretching, readying herself.

"I'm guessing you want to continue training on this boat? Just so you know, I'm already used to running on slippery floors." The hedgehog pointed out.

"I'm sure that you are Sonic. It was fortunate that we managed to create such powerful ships when we were in my dimension as no pirates managed to land on the deck, meaning you never had to fight on it." Blaze started jabbing at the air quickly to warm herself up. "This also means that you have no experience here, which could prove dangerous in the future."

Though the princess had a valid point, Sonic was sure that the cat wanted her revenge for what he did the day before. "So what's the training plan then?" He asked. The faster he was done with it the faster he could come back to the land.

"We battle, first one to get thrown overboard and fall in the water loses. You shouldn't hold back either as I won't." Blaze warned.

"As if I could against you, I don't wanna end up barbequed!" The hedgehog's answer earned him a grin from him opponent.

Blaze didn't waste a second as she rushed at Sonic with a flurry of burning punches. The hedgehog, surprised at her sudden attack, still had narrowly avoided each and every strike before countering with lightning fast jabs. Blaze deftly deflected each of them before jumping back to gain some space.

It was Sonic's turn to attack as he jumped and then curled up into a ball, hurling himself at the cat as she jumped to the side to avoid the incoming attack and immediately attempted to kick Sonic who had landed on both of his legs; the hedgehog easily blocked her foot with his hand and held it tightly, smirking at his opponent.

"Look like you're pretty sluggish today Blaze, or maybe it's just that I've just become too strong for you?" mocked the hedgehog. Blaze gritted her teeth as she recognized Sonic's tactic, or so she thought.

From fighting against and with him, the cat had learned that no matter who the enemy was, Sonic would constantly taunt and mock them to the point that they would often be blinded by anger which would then lead to their downfall. Blaze had had to face similar opponents like this such as pirates or even Nega and had managed to almost always keep her head cool after a while which had proven to be a very difficult but rewarding task for her. There was something about Sonic that irritated more than anybody else though and right now, the fiery cat was doing her utmost to calm her boiling anger.

As if to answer, Blaze's blocked foot set itself on fire causing Sonic to release her. She immediately followed up with a jumping spin kick, the hedgehog ducked to avoid it and slide under her to get behind her. Blaze quickly turned once she landed to make sure Sonic wouldn't be able to catch her defenseless.

"Not bad, not bad! Let's see how you handle this!" He said before rushing toward Blaze in an almost exact reproduction of her first attack, as if to mock her. A torrent of fists poured on the cat as she put her arms in front of her in a defensive manner, struggling to keep her ground. Sonic started hitting faster and faster like a machine gun and almost broke Blaze's guard when she had the idea to set herself on fire completely and with a burst sent the blue blur flying far enough for him to be right above the water.

Had it been against any other person, Blaze would have won this match but she knew it was far from over.

Sonic curled up into a ball once more and started spinning in midair at an incredible speed and as if breaking all laws of physics, the hedgehog suddenly hurled through the air and back on the boat.

_'The homing attack… Even after seeing it done so many times, I still do not understand how it works.'_ Blaze thought.

"Aw, looks like you couldn't handle a bit of speed." The hedgehog said with a grin, enjoying the glare Blaze was giving him. "Too bad for you, I'm just getting started!"

Just as the cat had predicted, the waves had begun to become more violent, rocking the ship slightly. Waves crashed against the hull letting water splash on the deck where the duo fought.

"Good, I would not expect less from one I consider as an equal." Blaze replied, knowing the fight would soon turn in her favor.

The hedgehog went on the offensive once more, this time moving and attacking more through the air because of the water making the metallic surface much more slippery. This also made Sonic much slower than previously which helped Blaze avoid, block and deflect all of his attack. The cat didn't attempt to counter and focused on stalling time. It didn't take long before Sonic noticed, he purposefully slowed down and let a big opening in his offense, even then the cat didn't react.

"What, too scared to hit back? Y'know that's not how you win fights right?" He said continuing his assault. Blaze didn't answer.

After another minute of playing the cat and mouse game, Sonic stopped and jumped a few feet away. "Okay I' m getting tired of this, what's your big plan to defeat me? You couldn't have dodged me this whole time just to annoy me right?"

"Perhaps I did." Was the only thing that came out of the cat's mouth, her face remaining stoic as she took a quick glance at the ground, checking the water level on the deck. _'There should be enough now.'_

The hedgehog noticed and followed her gaze, unsure of what she was thinking about.

"Watch carefully Sonic or else you might find yourself thrown into the waters."

"Not if I stop you first!"

Everything happened in a split second. Sonic ran at his usual amazing speed to hit Blaze as the cat burst in fire, flames covering the surface they were on. The water immediately turned into vapor, creating an immense fog that covered the entire deck and hindering the sight of both fighters. Sonic's attempted punch completely missed as he couldn't see the cat anymore.

He took a step back and focused on his other senses as he could hear the very faint sound of something going through the air. Putting his arms up in defense, the hedgehog blocked an incoming kick right in time, Blaze immediately hopped back into the mist and tried to attack the blue blur by surprise once more but he blocked again. The same scenario repeated itself three more times before Sonic leaped back, having had enough.

Sonic was not a patient man and was not about to wait for the mist to dissipate by itself, the boat constantly shaking from side to side didn't help either as it hindered his footing and made it much more difficult for him to fight. As long as he couldn't see how the cat dealt with it he wouldn't be able to fight correctly.

"Little known fact about me: I'm a pretty good hide and seek player." Said the hedgehog with a mocking smirk as he then started running as best as he could in circles over a small area, faster and faster until he created a miniature tornado. The tornado acted like a vacuum, effectively making the fog dissipate much faster than normal and after a few seconds, the ship had been completely cleared of mist. "Found the kitty."

This left both fighters facing each other on opposite sides, Sonic's first reaction was to immediately imitate the cat's firm stance as she didn't seem bothered by the stirring ship.

"And here I thought I had the advantage, as expected a petty trick like this won't work on you." The cat said, readying herself once more, her facial expression as stoic as ever.

"I'll admit that was a pretty smart move, when'd you learn that?"

"I'll tell only if you win."

With that, the battle resumed once more, as the equally skilled fighters duked it out.

* * *

><p>It might have felt like hours of attacking, dodging, blocking, counter-attacking and feinting for the duo; in reality it only had been slightly above thirty minutes since their fight had begun. Both were silently panting and bruised, and even if there were no serious injuries, their energy had slowly been draining though both knew they were still far from their limit.<p>

"Let's stop for today." Blaze said, dropping her stance, the hedgehog nodded in agreement and did the same.

They navigated to the cave to leave the ship there and go back inside of Sonic's house after climbing the hills without any troubles. Once they entered, Sonic leaned against a wall while Blaze went to sit down on the couch. She had almost forgotten about her little revenge, thinking that she failed to make him drenched with sea water.

"First one to sit loses." abruptly said Sonic

...And was immediately reminded of it. Blaze stood up just as fast right before she touched the sofa, giving him a glare.

"Aw,I almost got you there."

Blaze leaned next to Sonic on the wall. "I was completely prepared for it." She said, closing her eyes to rest.

"Yeah right." They shared a moment of silence to rest before Sonic's house phone went off. "Must be Tails calling." He said, more to himself than his friend. Sonic picked it up and answered. "Welcome to Sonic's super mega special line! What can I do for y- Oh, hi Mr. President, what's up? …A few nights ago huh? I see, I'll be on my way."

Blaze raised an eyebrow, curious of what was going on. "Are there troubles?"

The hedgehog put the phone down. "Not really, it's just that they, the secret services, discovered an unknown object crashing not far from this place, they wanted to know what it was since they didn't manage to identify it even after recording the event and watching it multiple times." He explained as Blaze eyes widened, understanding that it was her.

"That was me falling right? They recorded it?"

"I guess so, nothing aside from you fell near my house. So what do you want me to tell them?"

Blaze tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well I could tell them that a friend from another dimension literally crashed at my house but that means you'll have to come with me, just so that they can be sure you're no threat…" The hedgehog started, he noticed Blaze's eyes slightly narrowed just as he said the word "threat". "…Or I could tell them it was just one of Tails' inventions that blew up. Your choice, I don't mind lying if it makes you feel more comfortable." He said nonchalantly.

The cat weighed her options. To her, it felt more right to come with Sonic and explain herself to his higher ups. After all if they had Sonic's personal number, which she assumed he had only given to Tails, they must be incredibly important people.

But what of her power? It was highly probable- No, Blaze was sure of it: they would immediately consider her as a threat and she would have to live just like she had to in her world, isolated from everything else. She couldn't risk losing this sanctuary she could live in even if it was temporary.

"…Do not tell them about me please." She finally said. The hedgehog stared at her a few seconds with a serious expression before his usual grin came back.

"No worries! Oh man this is going to be fun to lie about Tails screwing up something in the most hilarious possible way." He said, already imagining all sort of impossible scenarios. "I'll be on my way then, let's meet at Tails' house in a few hours, you know the way already right?"

Blaze nodded. "I do. By the way Sonic…" The cat approached the hedgehog and suddenly sweeped at his legs, attempting to make him fall. Sonic, surprised, got hit and landed on his behind. "You lost." She said with a victorious smirk.

Sonic was stunned for a second before chuckling, his grin wider than before. "Nice. You've gotten slyer haven't you? Just make sure to watch your back once I'm there again, I got some pretty mean tricks up my sleeve."

"My senses are sharper than the sharpest sword Sonic; I doubt you'll catch me off guard that easily." She grinned, closing her eyes as if to mock him. The hedgehog stood up and dusted himself off.

"Oh really? I'd recommend checking what's been standing on your head since a few seconds now, I'm off, see ya later!" With that, Sonic became a blur and ran away. Blaze touched the top of her head, her eyes slowly widening in surprise when she felt multiple items with her hand. She shook her head as an assortment of fruits fell to the ground.

"What in the world… How did he manage to do that? Since when?" The cat exclaimed, shocked that she hadn't even noticed him. "It does not look like I won after all; it ended in another tie, like always."

Blaze sat down on the nearby couch and decided she would rest a bit before heading to Tails' house, she still had time before she would go and pick up Cream and felt like it was an ideal moment for her to talk with the little fox and get to know him a bit better.


	9. Big Bad World

_Big Bad World_

If Shadow could rub his forehead harder out of frustration, he would, unfortunately for him he realized that this wouldn't help him in the situation they were.

"Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots." He muttered as he looked over to the bat and large robot that were happily picking up jewels, precious ores and other minerals like they were flowers. Of course, it hadn't been the case ten minutes ago, until Omega had the bright idea of "let's blow up everything until we get what we want". At first, it didn't sound bad at all and even Shadow had liked the idea, after all it would get things done faster.

On the other hand, he had not expected to be indirectly affected the job of teleporting the team to safety whenever Omega blew the caves they were inside. The robot seemed to enjoy taking the hedgehog by surprise too as he never alerted his teammates when he would start shooting missiles.

Rouge was also happily cheering on the machine set on destruction as Omega made sure that he wouldn't damage a single precious rock as he then would dig them all very quickly back up, tossing aside cheap stones, which was what was mostly left of the caves.

The group was heading to the next spot Rouge knew with Shadow carrying an oversized bag full of everything they picked up so far and following slowly, making sure to show how annoyed he was by the situation. Of course, his comrades completely ignored him, which made him even more frustrated.

Omega suddenly came to a halt and turned his metallic head to his left, his sensors constantly scanning the surrounding had detected something strange.

"UNUSUAL ENERGY DETECTED, PROBABILITY THAT ROBOTNIK IS BEHIND THE SOURCE OF THIS ENERGY… 2%. IT IS VERY FAINT. " The large robot stated in his monotonous voice. The dark hedgehog raised a brow, they hadn't heard of the doctor in a while now and Omega always had managed to detect the man or his creations if they were nearby and the probabilities were above 90% every time.

"Who cares? It probably isn't him, we got diamonds to get anyway!" said the bat who continued to move forward. The robot started walking in the direction he had turned his head to.

"I WILL INVESTIGATE." He simply said before the boosters on his back activated, allowing the heavy machine to move much faster.

"I'm coming with you Omega." Immediately said Shadow who dropped the bag, Rouge quickly got in front of him to stop him, a stern look on her face.

"Oh no you don't! I need someone to carry that thing you just dropped and you're not escaping this Shadow!"

"As if, I don't owe you anything. Now out of my way Rouge."

"You don't owe me anything?" The bat had an evil smirk on her face as the dark hedgehog remembered that he might have just a few things he did owe her. "How about all those times you came crashing at my place? Or when you almost destroyed a GUN base and I stopped you right in time? Or when I saved you from public humi-"

The dark hedgehog let out a groan in answer, rubbing his forehead as if he felt his headache coming back. "Fine, I get it so stop being so damn loud. Tch." Shadow picked up the bag and, after grumbling and muttering a few curses, started walking toward the next spot. "Let's get those damn rocks you need."

The bat smirked in victory before quickly following him, she made a mental note to ask what their robot friend found once they meet him again.

* * *

><p>Blaze was sitting on a hill resting. She had started traveling toward Tails' home and would've been there faster if it wasn't for the slight injury on her leg her sparring with Sonic had caused. While the hedgehog hadn't aimed any of his attacks at her lower body, sending back multiple spinball assaults with kicks and knees hits might not have been the best idea she had thought of. Sonic's skin was particularly hard and his quills were even more, it wasn't like robots where she could melt the metal first before kicking safely.<p>

"No wonder he can run through Nega's machines as if they were made of butter." The cat thought out loud. She wondered what the hedgehog was made of as he didn't have any particularly large muscles either, perhaps his bone were stronger than normal people. She had heard of peculiar training used by ancient clans of her world where the warriors would punch walls bare handed with just enough force to create very small bone fissures without breaking their fists. Over time, their hands would heal and strengthen up every time they repeated the process. Of course she doubted Sonic was foolish enough to try something like this, at least intentionally. Deciding to drop the subject for now and that she had rested enough, the cat stood up and dusted herself off a bit.

She was about to run as she heard a familiar sound. Her ears perked up and she took a fighting stance, preparing herself for an immediate fight. Metallic steps clunking on the ground resonated through the area as a large, red robot appeared, and though not egg shaped, Blaze guessed that this was another of Eggman's creation. _'Has he finally decided to attack?'_

"SOURCE OF UNKNOWN ENERGY FOUND. QUERY: WHO ARE YOU?" The robot asked, making no sign of movement.

With no warning, Blaze opened her palm toward Omega as a large stream of fire shot out of it. The robot put one of its claws in front of him as a protection but didn't move from his spot. The fire dissipated and the machine was standing at the same position, seemingly undamaged, but the cat nowhere to be seen either. Blaze had jumped and used the fire as a distraction, unleashing an axe kick from the air which was skillfully deflected by the robot. She gritted her teeth as she felt the pain in her leg when she touched the ground.

"YOU ARE INTERESTING, THE PROBABILITY THAT YOU CAN CONTROL FIRE IS 80%, I CANNOT DETECT ANY HIDDEN WEAPON ON YOU." Omega casually said before continuing. "QUERY: DO YOU WORK FOR ROBOTNIK?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Blaze stammered in surprise at the sudden and very strange question before shaking her head, concentrating harder to not be destabilized by this robot. "I shall not be fooled by you, robot, I will get rid of you!"

"PROBABILITY THAT YOU DO NOT WORK FOR ROBOTNIK: 92%." The machine then dashed forward, catching Blaze by surprise. She prepared herself for an attack but instead Omega grabbed her hand and shook it in a businesslike manner. "LET US BURN AND DESTROY ROBOTNIK'S ROBOTS TOGETHER."

Blaze wasn't sure of how to answer to this. Her first reflex was to immediately free her hand from the machine's grip and jump back, slightly wincing in pain when she landed on her feet. She started to think about her current situation. Even if the robot was sincere, how could she trust one of Eggman's creation? This had to be some sort of trap, this robot seemed particularly smart too and it could get dangerous for her. On the other hand, she'd rather not fight right away to let her wound heal. Omega hadn't moved since the cat had jumped. Maybe Blaze could try and take advantage of the situation…

"If you truly are not a threat then prove it to me." She said, keeping her fighting stance up.

"HAD I BEEN UNDER EGGMAN'S INFLUENCE, I WOULD HAVE FIRED AS SOON AS MY SENSORS WOULD HAVE DETECTED YOU. IS THAT NOT ENOUGH PROOF?"

"That is true. The problem is that you seem much smarter than the mindless minions I have faced." _'He has quickly figured out my power as well…'_ The cat thought.

"YOU ARE VERY WARY. PROBABILITY THAT YOU BELIEVE THIS TO BE A TRAP: 99%. WHAT KIND OF EVIDENCE DO YOU WISH TO SEE TO BELIEVE ME?"

"You let me go my way without following me and I'll consider your… interest in me, as long as you hold your word."

"I HAD NO INTENTION OF KEEPING YOU THERE OR FOLLOWING YOU. I ONLY CAME HERE BECAUSE MY SENSORS DETECTED AN UNKNOWN ENERGY, IT IS VERY FAINT BUT I CAN FEEL IT COMING FROM YOU."

'…_The sol emeralds?' _Blaze wondered, though she didn't give him an answer and stayed silent.

"I SHALL GO THEN, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN." The robot said before turning around and walked away.

Blaze waited until Omega was out of sight before dropping her stance. She immediately checked her surroundings to be sure there wasn't anything else and after a few minutes, she realized that she was completely alone.

'_What a strange encounter… I'll have to talk with Tails about this, he might know more about this robot.'_ The cat thought before dashing off to the fox's home.

* * *

><p>Blaze finally arrived in front of the boy's house. She gave a few knocks on the door as it slowly opened, it had been left open. The cat entered, checking the rooms around, the fox was nowhere to be seen. She then remembered the underground part of the house and heard the sound of glass colliding with the ground. Blaze rushed to the source of the sound, only to find the fox kneeling on the ground, cleaning what seemed to be water along with transparent glass shards.<p>

"Ah darn it, not again! Those e-mails keep putting me in this state, if I'm not careful enough I might end up damaging some wires…" He said to himself, not noticing the cat behind him.

Blaze had approached the fox and was about to greet him when she noticed the text on the computer's screen. She started reading what was written, at first it seemed polite but the more she read, the more she saw that it was far from true. The message had quickly gone from questions to accusations and even insults.

"Okay that should do it." The fox said with a sigh, before standing up and turning around. He let out a gasp when he noticed Blaze. "Whoa! Blaze, don't scare me like that! What are you-" He followed her gaze and understood that she was staring at the screen, the fox hurried to turn the it off. The two stared at each other in complete silence before Tails let out a long sigh. "You saw, didn't you?" He asked, already knowing the answer to his question.

"I did." Blaze bluntly answered.

Tails looked downward, staring at his feet, ashamed that somebody now knew about his problem. He wasn't sure of how bad it was that it was Blaze who had discovered it as he wasn't particularly close to the princess, he just hoped she wouldn't tell Sonic.

"Before we start any discussion, there's something I have to ask you: Do you know about a large red and black robot with massive claws? His approach was odd, he was trying to be friendly with me and I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or if it was an elaborate trap laid down by Eggman." Blaze started.

"That sounds like Omega. If you're talking about an robot that calculates probabilities often and enjoys destroying Eggman's bots then yes, he's an ally." The fox answered, walking toward another computer and turning it on.

"I see…" The cat said, thinking of how strange it was for one of the doctor's creation to fight against him. "As for your… situation, whether you wish to discuss about it or not is your decision. I want you to know that I've been through something similar in the past." She continued.

The fox's ears perked up out of interest as he turned around to face Blaze. "Something… similar?"

The cat nodded. "I'm not very well versed in the technology of your world, but I could make out that what I read was a letter from somebody. I've seen many letters myself like this and all of them were directed to me, that is the price for standing out whether we want to or not."

"Standing out huh? Two tails, very young, called a genius by every single person on the planet… I really do stand out."

"Harassment, bullying, attempted murders; I've had my fair share of them." She casually said as if they had become day-to-day events.

"Wow, sounds like being a princess is hard." said Tails, looking slightly surprised though quickly understanding that royalty didn't only come with benefits

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not here for a competition of dreadful pasts, I'm only saying that I have experience in that… subject." Blaze cleared her throat before facing away from the fox, slightly embarrassed by what she was about to say. "A-and that's why if you wanted to, we could talk about it."

Tails stayed silent for a long moment, wondering if talking with the princess was the right thing to do for him. Blaze was not a person he was particularly close to and he had never imagined having this sort of talk with her. On the other hand, if she could provide some of the answers he needed then why wouldn't he give it a try?

"Alright." he ended up saying "How did you deal with it?" was the first question he asked.

Blaze sat down on a nearby chair to make herself more comfortable before starting. "You may have guessed that already but there is no definite answer to this. New individuals will always come once you've dealt with the previous one."

"Hm, I expected that. It doesn't matter how many of those guys I block, they manage to come back through other identities and adresses on the net. The number of mails I get keeps growing too…" The fox said with a worried expression.

"Yes. In reality, this is something that no one can stop. However that won't be your goal, what you'll want to do is to limit the number of person that can harass you." Blaze explained.

"I've already cut up a few of my own e-mails to try that, I don't think I can do more."

"I'm certain that on the "net", as you call it, you've done everything you could, but I'm also certain that you didn't think about the real world. Especially one as advanced as yours where an entire city can be informed about anything and everything in less than a night." The cat said, remembering that her friendly dinner at a restaurant with Sonic had been known by at least three of his friends the day after. _'No wonder Sonic lives in an isolated place, that might be his only way to have a bit of privacy.'_ She thought.

"Then, what do you suggest?"

"What you have to do is to limit your appearances in public and avoid being caught by anything related to media. Only go if it's absolutely necessary, you don't need to be seen all the time by everybody as it'll bring more harm than help."

"That's quite a radical solution…" The fox said, raising an eyebrow at the cat.

Blaze sighed, memories of her past flashing in her head. To her, isolation and discretion were and always had been the best way to avoid problems and while she ended up admitting it might not be very healthy for the reputation, it did help her mind a lot. "Sadly, it is a necessary evil. Of course you're much smarter than me Tails so you might find another solution or even create one." She said with a smile.

The fox was thinking really hard about it and what he heard. Everything that Blaze said was right but maybe a bit excessive, he would definitely be more careful whenever he goes out but not to the point where he would stay forever hidden in his lab. "Thanks for everything Blaze. If I find a solution, I'll be sure to share with you."

"Eh? How did you know…" Blaze looked surprised; Tails had managed to guess that she still had some problems herself. "You're as wise as you are smart, aren't you? Just don't tell anybody else about it."

"You keep my secret, I'll keep yours! How about we seal the deal with a pinky promise?" Tails said, raising his little finger and putting it forward. The cat raised an eyebrow and wasn't sure of what to do. "Our pinkies have to be entwined for it to work."

"Oh, uh alright." Blaze executed herself as the fox started reciting the pinky swear. _'The brain of a genius yet the heart of a child, I often forget that he is very young…'_

Tails happily completed the chant before letting go of the cat. "There, Now neither of us can break our promise!" he said with a big smile, his expression quickly changed when he realized what he just did. "Sorry, that was silly…" he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "A-anyway, want something to drink? I have to work on one of my projects and I don't think you'll be very interested by it so uh…"

"I'm actually very interested by your creations, I would be honored if I could come with you or even help you."

"R-really?!" Tails exclaimed, surprised by Blaze's answer. He was so used to Sonic leaving whenever Tails had to work on something, though the fox knew it because the hedgehog believed he would be more of a bother than anything.

"Yes."

The fox's eyes practically gleamed with happiness. "Great! Let's go then I have so much I want to show! I have this awesome solar powered Extreme Gear I've been working on today!" He suddenly took Blaze by the arm and dragged the poor cat as he ran deeper into his laboratory, talking excitedly about multiple of his creations.

* * *

><p>After having to deal with the secret services' interrogation or "constant nagging" as the hedgehog would put it, he had a friendly discussion with the dear president with him asking about that event that was seen everywhere on television, the so-called date every single media was talking about.<p>

The president had been actually happy to learn of the news as he started talking about his past, how he met his own wife and how he settled down with her. The president told Sonic that while he might be a hero that was constantly battling the forces of evil, he deserved like any good soldier a few breaks here and there.

'_Settling down huh…'_ The hedgehog started to think. He never had thought seriously about his future. He lived in the present and enjoyed every single moment whether he was running, fighting or with his friends. Don't dwell on the past and don't stress about the future is how he truly enjoyed life.

Of course, the president did say something that had very slightly put in doubt Sonic's way of thinking. What would he do once Eggman was gone for good?

To put it bluntly, the hedgehog had no idea of what he would do. Eggman was the one that delivered the hedgehog's weekly dose of excitement, trying to bring down Sonic unsuccessfully every single time, for the blue blur every danger thrown at him was a game.

'_Somehow, I can't really see myself in a world where there are no more dangers or threats from that egg-head…' _The hedgehog rubbed his chin, he could probably explore the world, though that wouldn't take him very long considering he has already done quite a bit through his adventures. _'Work for GUN, maybe? Nah, those guys have been quite a bit of troubles for me, not too fond of 'em.'_

Was settling down with somebody the only possible solution?

The hedgehog shook his head as if to chase all those thoughts away. "Whatever, life's all about the journey anyway, I shouldn't be thinking about this."

He had quickly arrived at Tails' home and opened the unlocked door like he was used to. Tails had decided that he wouldn't bother locking it if he was in, he doubted anybody aside from a few of his friends would come to his place anyway, even burglars wouldn't bother going all the way there as it was quite a bit far from the place where most of the inhabitants of Holoska resided.

He entered and heard voices he recognized coming from the living room, he couldn't really hear what Blaze and Tails were talking about and walked in the living room.

"Hey guys, what's up?" he greeted, giving a pat on the fox's head. Tails turned around and smiled.

"Hi Sonic! We were just talking about the Ocean Tornado replica I was working on a while ago." The fox answered.

"Oh, the one we sparred on this morning." said Sonic, making the fox stare at him in confusion. "What, Blaze didn't tell you? We had an awesome fight and the boat shaking made things even more exciting!"

"I wanted to tell him but didn't want to interrupt Tails' very informative speech on the boat's anatomy." The cat said.

The fox smiled at her. "Well it's okay, it seems like you guys had fun. Wish I had been there to see it…" He then turned back to Sonic with a mischievous smile "…buuuut it doesn't look like you won, did you Sonic?"

The hedgehog did a loud, exaggerated gasp and faked a shocked expression on his face. "No way, how could you accuse me of such a thing as losing, don't you have a bit of faith in your big brother?!"

Tails rolled his eyes. "Soooo you didn't lose, but you didn't win either right? Otherwise you'd have been boasting about it as soon as you entered the room. Am I right or am I right?" he answered with a smirk.

"Indeed, it ended up in a tie." Blaze said.

"A tie, wasn't it the same when you guys fought, before you were friends?"

"Please don't remind me of such an embarrassing mistake." She cleared her throat before speaking once more. "Ahem, it is good that you are here Sonic. I wanted to discuss about some matters with you and Tails."

Sonic jumped on the couch next to Tails; making himself comfortable while making sure to not dig any holes with his spikes. "What's on your mind?"

"I know we said that for now we could do nothing until Eggman makes a move, but couldn't we start searching for the Chaos Emeralds and gather them? If we have both my burning and your super form ready, I highly doubt Eggman would be able to do anything against us."

"We've already thought about it multiple time me and Tails but there's just one problem that comes with it… I'll let Tails explain since I'm no good with technical stuff."

"Of course, I'm just going to pick up some tools first to make the explanation easier." The fox stood up and ran to his underground laboratory. A few minutes later, he came back with his trusty Miles Electric and a Chaos Emerald in his hands. "I actually have two emeralds that I keep in my lab, mostly to power mechanisms I can't power up by normal ways or machines that just need more power than what I can get." The fox sat back down before typing a bit on his machine before it showed a green grid with three glowing dots on it. "I'm currently using the radar function I made myself to detect the emeralds and as you can see, the three dots represent potential chaos emeralds."

"Potential chaos emeralds?" Blaze repeated, unsure of what it could mean.

"That's right. Like here, I said that I kept two chaos emeralds but there are three dots on the screen. I'm going to guess that the third dot is you Blaze, do you carry the sol emeralds with you?"

The cat nodded "Yes, all seven of them."

Tails looked slightly surprised, he thought that she had only come with one or two this time. "Seriously? Yet the signal I'm receiving is only about as strong as one Chaos Emerald, I guess my theory is right…" The fox began mumbling to himself but with a poke from Sonic's finger, he quickly went back on tracks. "Anyway as you can see, the chaos emeralds are very easy to detect, even from far away. Their energy is erratic and very unique so if you've got a bit of knowledge in the field, building a radar to find them isn't very hard either. You can already guess what would happen if we had the seven chaos emeralds in one room."

"Basically it'd be having like a giant neon sign with "Free Chaos Emeralds and chili dogs" written on it." The hedgehog finished for the fox who nodded as a confirmation.

"Exactly, it'd be very easy for Eggman to come in and steal all of them at the same time. In the end it's much safer if they're spread around the world rather than us having to constantly defend them in one place." Tails continued.

The cat nodded, understanding the problem. "I see, it makes sense now, but what about me? I have to keep the sol emeralds on me at all times."

The fox smiled and answered, happy that he could share his most recent finding about the emeralds. "While having energy that's very close to a chaos emerald, it seems like Sol Emeralds don't behave like them. Chaos emeralds are unstable while sol emeralds are extremely stable and their energy doesn't float around the gem like their counterpart. My radar, showing you on the screen as one dot that was just as bright as only one chaos emerald, is the proof that what I said was true, which means that there should be no problems if you keep them with you."

'_Is that why the sol emeralds don't spread after my transformation ends?' _The cat wondered, feeling like she learnt something new about the magical jewels once more. "Thank you for the explanation Tails, both you and Sonic have taught me a lot about the emeralds." _'But it looks like we're truly forced to wait for Eggman to make the first move, how bothersome…'_

Tails smiled while Sonic gave her a thumb up. The trio decided to eat and hang out in the fox's house for now, at least until Sonic and Blaze had to go to their respective appointments. The cat helped Tails cook, learning a few tricks in the process while Blaze shared her own cooking experiences with the fox who was greatly interested in the culture of another world he hadn't really had the time to explore. After eating, the hedgehog decided to take a nap to "mentally prepare himself to face Amy tonight". Blaze decided to help Tails again in his projects in the meantime, after all it had been pretty fun for them so far and she felt that they had become real friends now.

It would also make her mind busy for a while at least; she did not want to start thinking about her world when she couldn't do anything for it for the moment.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Sonic had gone home to prepare himself for his date, Tails accompanied him as he wanted to start working on his ship again. Blaze on the other hand went to pick up Cream at Vanilla's house.<p>

Once she arrived she was greeted by Cream's mother and asked to stay a bit to talk with the cat. The bunny generously offered tea and various pastries that Blaze couldn't refuse as they were nearly forced upon her by Vanilla's kindness. Behind the bunny's smile, Blaze could feel that she was actually very worried.

After discussing a little, Blaze managed to reassure Vanilla that everything would be fine, and that if "anyone dared to even touch Cream, she would immediately set them on fire", which now made Vanilla more worried about the people that might bother Cream more than her daughter herself.

By now, the sun was setting down and both Cream and Blaze were outside and on their way to Rouge's club, the address being written on the card the bat had previously given to her. The small bunny knew where it was and decided to lead the way.

Blaze followed as they headed for a train that had Emerald Town as its destination. The cat couldn't help but still feel slightly anxious as it would only be the second time she met her self-proclaimed best friend.

She just hoped that nothing would go wrong.


	10. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

_Girls Just Wanna Have Fun  
><em>

"Look look! It's Miss Rouge's house!" Cream excitedly said to her cat friend.

It had taken more time than Blaze had expected but they finally had arrived at Rouge's nightclub. The bunny accompanying the cat had greatly helped in navigating through Emerald Town to safely get to Night Babylon. The feline felt amazed at how quickly the scenery had changed from a simple and peaceful city to a busy nightlife district full of people roaming the streets, entering various buildings such as casinos and some edifices with other types of activities the cat would rather not have Cream see.

"House" wasn't exactly the right word to describe Rouge's property. The widest, yet not tallest building was Club Rouge, its large neon sign in the shape of the famous bat's head winking. There were at least three full horizontal lines of clients, all of them waiting for their turn to enter the club. Next to the massive amount of persons was an entrance empty of where "VIP" was written above it, guarded by a massive gray furred bulldog in a suit, probably the biggest canine the cat had ever seen in her life.

The cat pulled out the card Rouge had previously given her; she knew that this sort of person wouldn't hear anything unless presented with the right document. It's not like she could blame them either, they were after all only doing their job.

Blaze moved forward, in the direction of the special entrance. The guard immediately took notice of both girls as well as the card the cat held in her right hand. Without a word, the feline handed the card to the bulldog who took it and observed it carefully under every possible angle. After a minute, the imposing dog gave the VIP pass back.

"While your card is valid miss, we cannot let underage persons, and much less children, enter this place." The dog said with a gruff voice.

"If you're worried about her safety, I can take care of it just fine."

"That's not it miss, it is forbidden for me to let such a young person through this door."

Cream looked painfully disappointed which made Blaze slightly more annoyed than before. Why would they go through the troubles of making a special entrance for special guests if they ended up refusing some based on ages? Wasn't the whole point of it to make important individuals, no matter the age or gender, be able to enter?

The cat stared coldly at canine. "I see, how unfortunate. I wonder how Rouge would react once I told her that her guard wouldn't let her very important guests pass. Let's go Cream." She grabbed the bunny's hand before turning around and walked away.

"Oh this is too bad; I really wanted to see Miss Rouge too…" Cream said with a sad tone coming from her voice, her head hanging low.

"Maybe next time Cream, hopefully it won't be the same man that will welcome us." Blaze bluntly answered. She made sure to be loud enough, hoping that it would force his hand enough to let them enter.

'_Damn brats, I can still hear you just fine!'_ The dog thought, gritting his teeth and judging his options. He didn't want to get fired over a mistake like this and preferred to avoid taking any risk. "Wait miss!" he called out, making the cat stop in her tracks "I can let you enter, under a few conditions."

The cat turned around to face the dog, hiding her surprise. _'I didn't expect this to work so easily, what an easy man to deceive.' _"I'm listening."

The burly dog cleared his throat. "One: I will have to accompany you through the club and two: you cannot leave Madam Rouge's private quarters. Unless you accept those conditions I cannot let you enter this place with a child."

"We accept, let's go then."

"We're going to meet Miss Rouge, yay!"

The canine allowed them to pass through the door before entering himself; he then closed it behind him before activating multiple locks to make sure nobody would be able to go through in his absence.

* * *

><p>Loud music, flashing lights and a sea of bodies dancing were what one would expect from a nightclub. Blaze had never been to one before in her world for multiple reasons, and aside from the fact that she wouldn't be welcomed there in the first place, one of them was that she was royalty and it would be viewed terribly if she participated in activities of those with a class lower than her.<p>

On her rare travels, she had often heard youngsters talking about those places.

In her world, it seemed like mostly those of the middle class would go to these places. The activities consisted of listening to music, dancing and drinking. In summary it was like a dumbed down royal ball, the cat expected herself to be able to handle something like that.

Of course, Blaze had never thought that the music would be this loud, it pained her sensitive ears. She wondered how Cream was doing especially with her large ears and to her surprise the bunny didn't seem bothered in the least. In fact, the bunny was enjoying herself as she looked excitedly all around her, unaware of the curious stares she received from the customers. Those stares quickly changed directions when they noticed the large dog that led the two girls.

It didn't affect the gazes of the male that were locked on the feline, which made her feel very uncomfortable. She answered to the winks and provocative signs with glares and scowls and yet it only made the young men snicker and whisper between themselves.

The room was a large space divided in two, on one side there was a bar with three bartenders taking care of the service: A rhinoceros, a monkey and a human woman. Surprisingly, the woman was the one that looked the most menacing even though the rhinoceros rivaled the guard dog's imposing stature. Behind them were an incredibly wide variety of bottles of alcohol based drinks, as well as soft drinks. The monkey glanced at the cat and gave her a flirty smile. Blaze completely ignored him.

In one of the corner of the room right next to the bar was an enclosed space with a single closed door with "STORAGE ROOM" written on it, guarded by a big lion with sunglasses and wearing the same suit as the bulldog. In reality, it didn't work only as a storage room but only few knew about it. This space had a per hour cost and had been made for special individuals that needed privacy, such as incredibly important businessmen or those involved in underground affairs. As long as they paid the price and kept their mouth shut, anybody was welcome inside.

The second part of the place was the main dance floor with lights coming from the tiles on the ground as well as the raised platform where the DJ resided, other than that there wasn't much to say about it.

The cat then noticed a set of stairs that went up a floor and realized that the nightclub wasn't divided in only two parts but this floor was. When she looked above, she saw that there were actually two more floors and all of them were very separated from each other.

'_It's just as big as the royal castle, this is amazing. Did she get the funds to make this all by herself?'_ Blaze thought. She also hoped that they would quickly get to Rouge's quarters, all of this sound was giving the cat a headache, and she couldn't even hear Cream when she tried to talk to her.

Her wish was granted when they went upstairs; the second floor wasn't as populated as the first though it was still busy. This floor was mostly full of different restaurants as well as rooms for different kind of games such as bowling. She didn't manage to get a good look at the names as they were already at the third floor.

The third floor was reserved only for the staff; it was both a floor for those that worked on the floors under to relax and one to take care of paperwork. In the middle of it was a circular counter where multiple employees were busily taking care of multiple tasks.

The group walked to the front of the counter, sitting behind was a purple and short haired vixen wearing a revealing purple dress. The woman looked like she was in her twenties and had a stunning body. She was completely absorbed in her paperwork and didn't even notice the small group that was in front of her.

"Violet, Madam Rouge has guests." The dog said.

The female fox raised her head, a scowl apparent on her face. "Look Gray, I'm very bu-" Violet started but stopped herself once she noticed Blaze, her expression suddenly changed for a much brighter one. She completely pushed the pile of papers in front of her and took on a much more seductive posture "Why, you didn't tell me we had such a pretty guest~! I'm reaaaalllyyyy fond of kitties, you know~!"

The bulldog sighed, the discussion had barely started but he already felt very tired. "Violet, do your work. And how many times have I told you to wear the official uniform and not your own clothes?"

"Eh, you're such an uptight guy, how can I flirt if I wear that lousy uniform?" She took a piece of paper from the pile she previously pushed away "What's your name sugarcube?" she said biting the tip of her pen and giving Blaze a flirtatious stare, which made the cat feel even more uncomfortable than before.

"B-Blaze and Cream. We're friends of Rouge."

The woman raised an eyebrow, unsure if she had heard wrong. "Blaze-and-cream? That's one weird name you got sweetie."

The bunny raised her hand and excitedly jumped to make sure Violet would see her. "I'm Cream! Nice to meet you miss!"

The eyes of the vixen widened in surprise. "Wait a minute… Gray! What are you thinking, bringing a kid here!"

"Why do you think I'm here? I had to accompany them, I didn't have a choice." He calmly explained, already expecting Violet to mock him once she opens her mouth to answer him.

"Wow Gray, you got your hand forced by a six year old? You've gone totally soft!"

"I'm eight year old!" The rabbit protested, her cheeks puffing out in annoyance.

Gray rubbed his temples, slowly getting irritated by the vixen. "Violet could you please do your job?"

"Fine geez. So Blaze and Cream…" She wrote the names on the paper with her pen before staring at the cat again, a smirk on face. "So Blazy kitty, I'm gonna need your hobbies, address, favorite food, phone number… Oh yes, do you have a boyfriend, or maybe… a girlfriend?"

"U-um…" Blaze wasn't sure of how to answer to this, it's the first time a girl had been so… aggressive to her, at least in this manner.

"You know you're really adorable when you're embarrassed, Blazy." The vixen said, her smirk getting wider, the fox stood up and leaned forward to approach the cat, which made the feline take a step back. Blaze was starting to sweat nervously.

"Blaze, this person is scary." Cream commented, hiding behind the cat's legs.

The bulldog cleared his throat to interrupt the discussion. "Violet."

"What?"

"Control yourself and stay professional."

"Sheeeeesh, at this rate you're never going to get a woman Gray…" This earned her a glare from her coworker. "Anyway, to meet Rouge you have to go through the balcony over there." The fox pointed at an opening on her left. "Just walk a bit and you'll find another door, knock on it and Rouge should open it."

"It's Madam Rouge, Violet."

"Yes, yes Mister Gray." The vixen rolled her eyes before looking at Blaze again and then winked at her. "And kitty, if you ever get bored, you know where to find me~."

The dog bowed in front of the cat and the rabbit. "I apologize on behalf of my co-worker; she just doesn't know how to stop herself."

"I-it's fine. We'll get going then, thank you for your services, both of you." Blaze said.

"Bye bye!" Cream followed.

The rabbit waved as she caught up with Blaze to the direction the fox had pointed to. The vixen snickered when she noticed that the cat was maybe walking a bit too fast, as if she wanted to get as far away as she could from the place, leaving the two employees alone.

"Gray, once they come out I want you to get me that cat's phone number. This is an order from your superior." The vixen whispered to her colleague.

"You're not my superior, Violet."

"Oh, right. Um, do it as a friend then?"

"No."

"Pleaaaaase?"

"No."

"You're a terrible colleague you know that? By the way, don't you feel like you've seen Blazy before; like on television or something?"

He turned around and went downstairs, his head hurting from listening to the vixen for too long. "I'm going back to the VIP door, there might be someone waiting there. Get back to work yourself, it wouldn't hurt you for once."

She didn't have any time to protest as he was already long gone.

"This guy, seriously… He needs to have some fun from time to time or he'll end up like that Shadow dude." The woman shrugged, putting the large pile of paper back in front of her "Ah whatever, back to work I guess. I'll just have to ask Rouge some informations later. "

* * *

><p>The pain in the cat's ears eased up greatly once they went to the balcony, the sound of the music was still loud but it was nothing compared to how it was on the first floor. The chilly breeze felt much more enjoyable as well than the air filled with various, sometimes unpleasant smells of the people dancing downstairs.<p>

There was one last set of stairs going upward before they reached a door. It was completely empty of guards and the door looked extremely plain. The cat hesitated a few seconds before she gave a few knocks on the door as she waited for an answer. She felt nervous, it was the first time she had come by herself to the house of a friend, every other time she had been dragged or offered to go, whether it had been Sonic, Tails or Vanilla's house, the cat hadn't ever taken the initiative by herself. Maybe Sonic was the one to give her the idea to get there, and she was truthfully grateful for that, but he wasn't with her now. Cream had also mostly acted as a guide for the feline so far, though her presence did reassure Blaze a bit.

This was a big step for her and Blaze was completely aware of it. Questions and doubts were racing through her mind. Was if she bothered Rouge while she was working? What if it had been a terrible time to come? Maybe she should just come back another day and contact her before she comes another time?

She didn't have time to think anymore as the door suddenly opened, revealing a yawning bat. Rouge was wearing her usual clothes, though it looked like she had hastily put them on before opening the door.

"Maron if you came here to complain about Violet stealing your girls again then I swear-" The bat started before she wiped her eyes and opened them, once she saw Blaze and Cream, her expression switched from surprise to joy and finally to horror. She immediately grabbed the hands of the cat and the bunny before forcefully dragging them in the house and quickly closed the door. "C-C-Cream?! Why- How- What are you doing here?!" Rouge flailed her arms up and down wildly, completely panicking. "This isn't a place for children! Blaze-"

"I can explain." Blaze said as calmly as she could before she told her winged friend what exactly had happened. From why Cream had come with her to this current situation, the cat explained everything as best as she could, omitting a few details such as her one sided interaction with the vixen. "…That is how it happened." She concluded.

It had taken a just a few minutes for Rouge to settle down, she was now sitting in an armchair filled with a ridiculous amount of jewels on the sides. "I see. I can't believe that this Gray would let you pass with a child like that, even with the card." The bat sighed and slumped down in her chair, already feeling exhausted.

"W-well, I might have slightly forced his hand." The cat stuttered, which made Rouge raise an eyebrow.

"Forced his hand?..."

""I wondered how Rouge would react if I told her you didn't let her friends pass through." Is what I said."

"Blaze, I don't think you needed to go that far. After all, you were in the wrong too by bringing Cream here."

"I deeply apologize Rouge; I didn't know that I would bring so many troubles to you." Blaze held her head low in shame, to think that simply visiting a friend would end up disastrous just as they met.

"I'm sorry too Miss Rouge, maybe I shouldn't have insisted so much, it's all my fault…" Cream said as her eyes started getting teary, making Rouge feel extremely guilty even if she had no reason to.

The bat patted both of the girls' heads before speaking up. "What's done is done. It's a good thing that Gray accompanied you guys; it did limit the future problems I might get by quite a bit."

"Still-" The cat tried to protest but it was in vain as Rouge shook her head.

"It's fine sweeties, I've never had a kid come at the club before but I'm sure I've had worst."

It was Cream's turn to protest as her cheek puffed out in anger. "I'm not a kid; I'm eight year old now!"

The bat chuckled in answer. "Whoopsie, my bad! Yes you're a grown girl now." She then turned to Blaze again. "By the way, did one of my employees bother you?"

"N-no." Blaze stuttered, shifting the direction of her gaze away from the bat.

Rouge grinned, having figured out that something did happen. "Hmm really? I'd be surprised if Violet didn't bother you. She's a very reliable girl but if the client happens to be anything that looks remotely cute, feminine and legal will make her turn into another person."

"Miss Violet was scaring Blaze!" The bunny suddenly exclaimed which made the cat jump in surprise.

"Aha, I knew it. So how was your first experience of getting hit on by a girl like Blaze?"

Blaze sat back before sighing. "…Unique." She said before rubbing her forehead. Just thinking about that "experience" made her head hurt.

"Right? It was the same for me; poor girl was trying very hard to control herself when I first met her. That was the most hilarious job interview I had to lead. It's been a while since I teased her too, maybe I should do that tomorrow…" The bat pondered, imagining what she could do to bother her employee.

'…_Somehow I feel bad for Violet now.' _Thought Blaze

"So, why'd you come here? Usually when people visit me it's because they want something from me."

'_Something from her? I do not really want to say that I came here because I had little to do; that would be rude… But I don't have any ulterior motives either, what am I supposed to-'_ The cat's thoughts were interrupted by the rabbit next to her.

"We just came to have fun Miss Rouge!" Cream exclaimed. It definitely was another way to phrase that they came here with no purpose but not one that displeased the cat.

The bat blinked twice, not expecting an answer like that. "…Huh, I'm so used to boring businessmen I forget I can also receive friends at home." The bat stood up and picked up a nearby cellphone before dialing a number. "You did tell your mom you've come with Blaze, did you Cream?"

Cream nodded. "Yes, I'm the one who wanted to go with Blaze. Mister Sonic gave us the idea because he's busy tonight."

Rouge pushed the call button on the phone; it rang a few times before somebody answered. The bat didn't give any time to the other person to say anything as she immediately started speaking. "Violet, this is Rouge, if I have any appointments set for today, cancel them, I'll be busy. If they need a reason, tell them that friends came by. Good luck." She then immediately hung up and looked back at her guests, a smile on her face. "Now then, what was that about Sonic being busy? This got me curious."

"Oh, he's on a date with Amy." Blaze casually said.

"Wait, wait a minute. Aren't you two dating? Doesn't that mean he's cheating on you?" The bat said

"B-Blaze is with Mister Sonic?!" The bunny nearly shouted, shocked by the news.

"Please don't tell me you also saw that lie the medias are spreading! And no Cream, I'm not like that with Sonic!" Blaze desperately tried to explain, which only made Rouge's grin become wider while it made the bunny calm down a bit, though Cream was confused now, unable to understand if her best friend was in a relationship with Sonic that yet another pink hedgehog was in love with.

"I heard about it and I don't usually trust television, but I saw it live and it's not every day I see that particular hedgehog on a table for two with a candle on it and a woman on the other end." Rouge stood up from her chair and stretched, obviously curious in this story and dead set in knowing what happened. "No seriously, how'd you do it? That guy has only chili dogs on his mind. Tell me your secrets oh great seductress!~" the bat teased, making Blaze frown.

"We only ate there as friends, nothing more and nothing less. It was very kind of him to take me out for dinner, and the candle was on the table as a source of light. If it was considered as something else then it clearly was a mistake from the owner of the restaurant, just like many of the events that followed…" She ended with a sigh, tired of having to deal with this seemingly impossible to escape story.

"You know, too many misunderstandings can't be misunderstandings in the long run. By the way, is he the fastest thing alive in the good or bad way in bed~?" Rouge said, enjoying picking on her new best friend.

Blaze immediately covered the ears of the younger rabbit with her hands. "R-R-Rouge!" The cat only managed to stutter, her face completely red in embarassment.

The bat laughed at her friend's reaction. "I'm just teasing you! And Cream's a big girl by now, I'm sure she knows what I'm talking about, right dear?"

"Hm? Oh! Sorry Miss Rouge, I didn't listen much of the conversation, I was so busy admiring your place! It's so nice here; you've got so many jewels and they're everywhere in your furniture!" The bunny exclaimed. Somehow it relieved Blaze that Cream's attention span was low; at least she wouldn't have to worry about her bringing up that misunderstanding again.

"Of course honey, I'm not the greatest treasure hunter of all time for nothing."

"Treasure hunter?" Blaze inquired.

"That's my official title sweetie." Rouge answered with a wink; Blaze immediately understood what the bat meant, she wasn't about to tell a little girl that she was a thief.

At the mention of treasure hunter, Cream's eyes nearly sparkled. "Best treasure hunter, that means you're like Indiana Jones?!"

"Oh my, you know your classics honey! While this handsome man is a pretty good treasure hunter, he's not quite as awesome as I am." The bat then smirked, staring at the little bunny. "Do you like movies Cream?"

"Yes, I really do!"

"I see. Okay then girls, tonight is movie night! Let me just change into my battle gear and bring the mega sized ice cream bowl and we'll be set. Wait for me on the couch in front of the big screen!"

The bat hurried to her room, leaving her guests alone. Cream had started to wander around the room they were in in silence, admiring each piece of furniture Rouge had.

"Miss Rouge is a nice person; Amy always told me I shouldn't trust her but she's very kind, right Blaze?" The bunny suddenly started.

"She's an odd one but she means no harm. How come Amy said that about Rouge, did it have something to do with Sonic?" Asked the cat while raising one of her brow.

Cream stopped in her tracks, pondering for a moment before answering. "Um, I don't remember everything Amy said but I think she met Miss Rouge a few times and they really didn't like each other. Ah but I'm sure it wasn't about Mister Sonic!"

"…I'm surprised; is there any specific reason as to why they dislike each other?"

"I don't think so."

'_How intriguing, why would Amy act like that with Rouge?'_ The cat thought. While her first encounter with the bat had not been the friendliest, after fighting through the issue, Blaze understood that Rouge definitely wasn't a bad person, just somebody with the not-so-noble hobby of stealing jewels. Maybe the pink hedgehog judged the bat based on that?

Then again, Blaze wasn't seen as a good person in her own world, maybe it was why she managed to get along with Rouge. "Strange…" she muttered before sitting in the middle of the two person sized couch. Blaze noted that the television in front of her was much, much larger than the one at Sonic's house.

The bunny sat on her left and Rouge suddenly jumped on the other side, placing the cat tightly between Cream and the bat, which made Blaze feel slightly uncomfortable. For the sake of not being seen as rude she didn't complain about her position.

Rouge had changed into a pink sleeveless nightdress with red heart patterns on it; it was also very loose though the bat didn't seem to mind it. In her hands was one large transparent bowl filled with multiple variety of ice cream, from the basic chocolate to some more exotic passion fruit variety. The bat put the bowl on the cat's lap before giving both of her guests large spoons, she then grabbed a nearby remote and pushed a button to activate the television.

"Hmm, what are we going to watch? Since Cream is here, we have to choose between..." Rouge then gave Blaze an extremely serious stare, the cat started to get nervous, unsure of what the bat was about to say. "Pixar or Disney."

"Disney!" The bunny immediately shouted, startling Blaze again.

"What is a "Disney"?" The cat inquired, having no clue of what they were talking about.

"Blaze sweetie, I hope you're not about to tell me that your world doesn't have something called cartoons?" Said the bat with a worried tone.

Blaze shook her head. "As far as I know I have never heard of such a word, but I don't have a television where I li-"

Rouge gasped. "No way! We have to fix this with a Disney marathon!" she said, furiously tapping on the remote as multiple screens quickly defiled. "Let's start with a personal favorite of mine then…"

"Beauty and the Beast! Or maybe Mulan? No wait, Pocahontas!" Cream shouted again, the bat immediately nodded in approval.

"Cream, you've got excellent tastes, you'll grow up and become a fine lady for sure."

"Thank you Miss Rouge, Mom always tells me this as well!"

"Here we go then! Oh and after this I'll make sure to teach you girls how to completely make any guy yours, a necessary skill for any lady~."

Before Blaze or Cream could understand what Rouge was talking about, the movie started. The cat had been expecting real actors, her eyes widened when she realized that she was looking at animated drawings, looking extremely lively.

With one last press on Rouge's remote, the lights in the room they were in were turned off and they all fell silent, completely immersed in the wonderful world of princesses and princes.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, the lights went back up as Blaze sighed in relief, not only because she would finally be free from being between Rouge and Cream constantly eating the content of the bowl on her lap but also because the movies they just had finished watching all had happy endings.<p>

Rouge had an honest smile on her face, it had been a very long time since she had enjoyed herself like this, it's not every day that friends would come to visit her and spend time with her having fun.

"So," the bat started, taking another big spoon of ice cream while staring at the cat. "How'd you like your first Disney movies sugar?" she asked, making the bunny just as curious as she looked at Blaze as well.

"Very enjoyable, the scenario is interesting and the work done on the drawings are well done." Blaze answered. Though she didn't say it, she had particularly liked Mulan and Beauty and the Beast, more than the other movies they had watched. _'It was interesting to how the Beast dealt with rejection from the village or how Mulan was treated once they discovered she was a girl…' _The cat thought, before turning her gaze to the bat next to her. "I also feel like there are important lessons to be learnt from these movies. You said they had been made for children yes? Then they are very well thought out."

"Right? That's the reason why I like them so much. Don't you think the world would be a better place if everybody had those values? Then again, that'd be asking for too much, wouldn't it be?..." She said, looking nostalgic. For a moment there, Blaze almost felt something close to melancholy coming from her winged friend but didn't have time to ask anything as Rouge quickly went back to her usual self. "Well well, it's past midnight already. Is it fine for Cream to stay so late? Did you guys also plan on sleeping here? I wouldn't mind but I need confirmation first, I don't want to get into troubles for nothing." Rouge said, standing up and picking up her phone that was lying on a small drawer behind the couch.

"There's no problem! Mom is with Cheese so he'll protect her if anything bad happens." Cream answered, obviously not understanding what the bat had asked.

The bat tilted her head, unsure of what the bunny was talking about until she realized the little girl thought Rouge was worried about her mother. "That's not what I meant. Can you input the phone number of your home in my phone Cream?" Rouge handed her phone to the bunny who executed herself, slowly inputting number after number before giving it back to the bat. "Thanks honey, I'll be right back then." Rouge confirmed the number before calling as she stepped into another room.

A few minutes later the bat came back. "She said that it's fine as long as you're with her Blaze." She said. Blaze nodded in approval, already aware that she would protect Cream at all costs. "Now then girls, time for you to learn a few tricks on how to make any man go head over heels for you-" Just as Rouge was about to finish her sentence, the door that led outside opened, revealing an ebony hedgehog standing in front of it with two plastic bags full of groceries in his hands. "-Except this depressive guy."

"Who're you calling depressive you noisy bat?" Shadow spat back while entering. He closed the door behind him with his foot before moving to the kitchen and dropped the bags there. He then joined the living room before he noticed the guests. One he knew and didn't care about, another he didn't know but wouldn't care about anyway.

He had gone to search for Omega and hadn't found the robot yet, he guessed that his artificial friend was probably destroying another one of Eggman's bases at the moment. While he was at it the bat had given him a list of things to buy as they had been running low on supplies.

Had it been anybody else he would have rudely ignored them but since it was Rouge, he would prefer to avoid her constant nagging if he hadn't bought what she needed.

"Ahem, Shadow, this is Blaze, a friend of mine. Blaze, this is Shadow, don't let his tall, dark and handsome appearances fool you, he's just a super moody guy." The bat introduced.

Blaze stood up and put her hand forward, waiting for a handshake. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Hi Mister Shadow." Said Cream, she didn't look quite as eager as before but still trying to be as cheerful as possible.

The dark hedgehog crossed his arms, ignoring both the bunny and the cat in front of him. "I didn't know you kidnapped children and forced them to act like your friends Rouge."

"I didn't know you had a sense of humor Shadow." The bat replied with a scowl before turning to Blaze. "Sorry, he's also pretty rude. A sulky, rude, good for nothing hedgehog."

"What was that you damn bat?" Practically barked the hedgehog.

"You're deaf or something Shady?" Was the reply that came from Rouge as they locked eyes.

They both glared at each other, practically head butting. Cream was hiding behind Blaze while the cat was trying to decide on whether she should step in or not.

Blaze didn't stop them and decided to observe the hedgehog instead. He looked somewhat close to Sonic but there was something… off. The air around him felt heavy, though both Cream and Rouge didn't seem to mind, or even notice that.

"Hmph." The dark hedgehog walked past Blaze but quickly stopped and turned around, staring at the cat. His uninterested gaze had suddenly become menacing and Blaze had noticed herself that the air around the hedgehog had become even heavier as she spun around to meet his stare. "You… You're hiding something."

Blaze was immediately taken aback. "Excuse m-?!" The feline had no time to finish her sentence that the dark hedgehog had suddenly approached her at extreme speed, by pure instinct Blaze jumped back even though Shadow had shown no sign of attack. What she was sure of was that for a moment there, she felt a murderous intent, imposing enough to make her back up.

The bat raised an eyebrow, unsure of what her dark teammate was going on about. _'What's up with him?'_ She thought, ready to step in if anything bad happened.

Cream quickly went to her best friend's side, aware that something was going on but not understanding what exactly was. She just knew that her friend might get hurt and she did not want that.

"There's one… No, two energies I can't identify." He continued, pulling a gun from behind his back and aiming it at the cat. "If you don't tell me exactly what you're hiding, I'll blow your head off."

The three girls' eyes went wide in surprise and fear.

Conflicted feelings appeared in the cat's heart, Shadow was in the wrong and yet the dark hedgehog was partially right to point a gun at her. Everybody feared the unknown, but in Blaze's case she knew that if she revealed her secrets then she would be even more feared.

The cat did not want Rouge to know what she really was; she didn't want to be seen like a walking hazard by one of her few friends and even less by one she had just met.

'_Have I ruined yet another enjoyable evening?...'_ She thought as sadness and regret crept up in her heart.

Steeling her resolve, the cat put her negative emotions away for the moment. She was in imminent danger and there was no time to think about such petty things as feelings.

She had to find a way to deal with the situation as fast as possible.


	11. You Don't Fool Me

_You Don't Fool Me_

"Spit it out, cat."

Rouge attempted to kick the gun away from the hedgehog's hand. He blocked the bat's kick and brushed it aside like it was nothing. "Shadow what the hell?! That's not how you're supposed to treat my guests!" She shouted; infuriated by how her friend was acting. Never had she seen him like this before even when she would bring the most corrupted men to do business with her, so why would he attack an innocent girl?

"Step back Rouge. I can feel a similar energy to the power of the Chaos Emeralds hidden under her coat, and then there's this… other energy I can't even define. Clearly, she's a dangerous one." He stated.

His last words stung the cat's heart, words she had heard many times in her life but the cat decided that now was not the time for those kinds of feelings. Somebody had just found out in only mere minutes that not only she had the Sol Emeralds but he had even detected her own power? She wasn't even aware her control over fire could be detected unless she used it!

"Clearly, you're the dangerous one here! You're pointing a gun at a friend I just watched movies and ate ice cream with and you're spouting crap about energies and how she's dangerous?! I can't believe you!" The bat said, shaking her head before giving Shadow a stern look. "Stop this nonsense right now."

Shadow rolled his eyes and put gun back where it came from, knowing he wouldn't hear the end of it if he didn't stop his threats. "Fine, I'll let her off for now." He said as he walked away to another room, giving the cat one last glare before disappearing completely from her sights.

Rouge sighed, ashamed of what had happened a moment ago. _'Great first impression there, Shadow, they're never going to come here again now.'_ The sad thought crept up in the bat's mind. It had been so long since she had fun and yet everything crashed because Shadow found 'something'. She was well aware that he was rarely wrong about that kind of thing and that Blaze might actually be hiding something but Rouge didn't care.

Blaze had been one of the rare persons to not treat her differently as soon as she found out that Rouge was a thief. Even before or during their fight, the cat had only wanted to get the jewel the bat had stolen back and nothing more and, just after their battle, Blaze treated Rouge with upmost respect as if she had just fought a fellow warrior from her world in a sparring match.

And while the fact that Blaze was a princess with, possibly, entire rooms filled with diamonds had pushed her quite a bit in "forcing" her friendship, after thinking a little bit of her encounter with Blaze…

…It wasn't every day that she found somebody with values like that. Even more so in the corrupted world Rouge partially lived in, it was just impossible to find somebody even somewhat similar to the cat in front of her.

"I'm so sorry Blaze; I didn't know it would turn out like that." She apologized, knowing that it was the only thing she could do at the moment. "Maybe it's best if you took Cream back home, I don't think staying at my place is a good idea anymore… I doubt you'd want to come back again anyway now." She let out a nervous laugh, unsure of what answer she should expect from Blaze. Would she be angry? Definitely.

Blaze snapped out of her thoughts, she had been thinking deeply about what had happened there and how Shadow had found out, although not completely, about her powers. If the hedgehog knew she manipulated fire then he would immediately take action or so she thought and at worse, her powers could become public.

The cat blinked twice, not understanding why she wouldn't want to come back there. "You don't want us to come back?"

"What? No, of course I want you to come back but do you want to?"

"I do. I don't see the problem then."

"But Shadow just acted like a total di-" Rouge held her tongue, remembering that Cream was right next to them. In fact she just noticed that the bunny had stood proudly next to Blaze through the whole ordeal even though she had been shaken up a bit by it.

"You defended me Rouge, if it wasn't for you I might have had to fight him. I am glad to have you as a friend."

The bat felt slightly embarrassed; something she very rarely felt. She hid it behind a cocky smirk. "Aw sugar how sweet, do you want to make me fall for you?" She answered, which made Blaze smile a bit.

"In truth, I should be the one apologizing; I'm the one that caused this situation after all…" The smile on the cat's face quickly turned into a smaller, sadder one.

Rouge crossed her arms and raised a brow at the cat. _'The only one at fault is Shadow, unless she means that she's truly hiding something…'_ "What do you mean?" The bat inquired, curious.

"I…" Blaze hesitated. She didn't know what to do anymore. On one hand she wasn't sure she could trust Rouge fully yet and on the other she felt guilty. Guilty that Rouge felt responsible for what had happened when in reality, Shadow had been perfectly right to suspect the cat.

"Hey," Rouge interrupted Blaze's thoughts, slightly startling her "We all have our secrets, don't we? We just became best friends so it's fine if we don't share every single little thing right away."

"Rouge… Thank you. I promise I'll tell you one day." The cat answered, relieved that her friend understood her. Perhaps the bat and her were more similar than she thought…

Blaze then turned toward the bunny standing next to her. "Thank you as well Cream for staying by my side, that's very brave of you."

"O-of course! I-I wasn't scared at all Blaze, Mister Shadow isn't scary!" Cream answered, trying to hide as best as she could the fact that she was trembling but completely failing.

"You should go now; I'm going to give Shadow a scolding he won't forget about. Come again whenever you want girls, my place will always be open for you two." She gave Blaze and Cream a small wave with her hand as a goodbye before she rushed to follow Shadow, leaving the cat and the bunny alone.

They exited to the balcony while closing the door behind them. Blaze was wondering how they would get out of this nightclub without causing a fuss when she saw Cream looking on the horizon, enjoying the view of Night Babylon under the moonlight.

"It's so pretty here, we should come back again Blaze!" Cream exclaimed which made Blaze smile softly.

"We will Cream. I'm bringing you home then." The cat answered before grabbing Cream.

She jumped off the ledge, creating fire under her feet right before she hit the ground to avoid getting hurt. Making sure that nobody saw them, Blaze decided to run to Vanilla's house, Cream still in her arms. She knew that Cream wasn't particularly fond of this method but she preferred to not take any chances at being seen and recognized by anyone from the nightclub they just left and cause the bat even more troubles.

Meanwhile, Rouge had followed Shadow's steps but didn't find him anywhere, the only clue she had was an open window. She opened up her phone and inputted a number she often called. The speaker at the other hand immediately answered.

"Omega, can you find Shadow for me?" She asked even if she already knew the answer. The machine didn't mind receiving orders from her or even Shadow as long as they were swift and short.

It was great that the robot didn't care about the "why" or the "how" either, it saved Rouge a lot of time.

"AFFIRMATIVE." The voice on the other side answered.

"Thanks hun."

Rouge hung up before heading to her personal room jumped on her bed. Now all she could do was play the waiting game.

"Maybe I should go steal a few jewels…"

* * *

><p>The blue blur had just arrived nearby Don Fachio's Hot Dogs and would've gone closer if it wasn't for the army of cameraman and fans that were trying to get inside, shouting and asking questions at the front door which was protected by at least ten policemen. All of them were asking questions about Sonic's night with the mysterious cat girl, but really all of it sounded more like accusations in the hedgehog's ears. The women in the crowd were especially angry.<p>

"Sheesh, my fans just creep me out sometimes." Muttered Sonic. He was hiding behind a tree, making sure nobody could see him.

The hedgehog jumped in surprise when he felt something poke his back, he turned around and found himself face to face with Amy. "Whoa!"

"Shhh! You don't want them to find us!" Amy whispered as she grabbed Sonic's arm and dragged him behind a parked truck next to them. "We should be safe for a bit now… You're early, this makes me so happy!"

The pink hedgehog leaned forward, showing off her clothes. Her usual dress had been replaced with a slightly longer white dress with frills as well as some makeup. "How do I look?" Amy asked expectantly.

"Er, you look fine?" Sonic answered. He had never been good with words when it came to women.

Amy frowned. "That's not how you woo a woman Sonic! You're supposed say that I'm pretty or attractive!"

"Whoops my bad. You're right, you're cute Amy." The blue blur said with a smirk.

The sentence echoed in the teenage girl's head as her cheeks reddened, she turned around to make sure Sonic didn't see. "W-well, cute is okay too I guess… Um, anyway, how are we going to get inside? The entrances are all blocked, maybe we should find another place to eat at?"

"Nah, I got an idea. We'll go through the roofs." Sonic took the surprised pink hedgehog in his arms before he ran to the closest building and zipped along the wall until he reached the top.

He looked at his next destination, the roof of his favorite hot dog place. He had two choices: he could jump to a closer rooftop and then leap there safely or he could directly jump from where he was.

The choice was an obvious one for the blue blur as his grin widened. "Hold on tight Amy!" Sonic took a few steps back before launching himself at an incredible speed in the direction of Don Fachio's.

Amy held her breath as they were flying through the air, it might have lasted only an instant but it made her heart skip a beat. That was definitely Sonic's way to start a date and the pink hedgehog liked it, although she would have preferred a more normal way, the situation they were in did make it impossible.

They landed safely, Sonic let go of Amy before inspecting the place. It was the same as when Sonic left a few days ago except that the table in the middle didn't have anything on it anymore.

"What an amazing spot Sonic!" Amy was walking around, enjoying that it was like a small private garden.

"Yeah it's a great place. The Don Fachio guys made it when I agreed to do some advertisement for them a few months back." The blue blur then was thinking about how they would be able to order food, going downstairs would be a bad idea so they had to find another way.

"This isn't even fake grass, that's so neat!" The pink hedgehog said as she touched the ground around them. Her hand felt something hard and she picked the unknown item up, inspecting it. "I found something weird."

"Hm?" Sonic came closer to Amy when he recognized the remote he had used with Blaze. "Oh, great job Amy! That's the remote we used yesterday to order food from here. With a bit of luck it should still work."

Amy tried to push a few buttons and the screen on the piece of technology successfully lit up as she accessed the main menu in it.

"Nice!" The blue blur exclaimed, they didn't have to worry about ordering their food now, he hoped the cooks would notice them.

After a few minutes of debating what they would take, they finally pressed the final button to order their food. Amy had settled for a salad while Sonic had gone with a classic chilli dog.

The hedgehogs decided to sit down at the table while waiting for their food, staring at each other in awkward silence.

"Erm…" The blue blur started, or more like tried to start. He had been on "dates" with Amy a few times in the past, mostly to reward her when she had done some exceptional deeds, such as protecting civilians all by herself during Black Doom's invasion.

It didn't mean Sonic had ever taken her to something as formal as a dinner as it wasn't his style; they had gone to theme parks, concerts or even trips but nothing as pressuring as sitting down and being forced to look at each other in the eyes.

It seemed like Amy was slightly more comfortable than the hedgehog in front of her as she spoke without problems. "You've never told me about this place before."

"That's because I rarely come here, it's usually for special occasions like-"

"Like with Blaze?" Amy interrupted, her glare betraying the smile on her face.

_'Here we go.'_ Sonic thought, it wasn't the first time his friend had acted like this even if it was rare. Whenever a woman would approach him a bit; the pink hedgehog would turn into the most efficent private detective. "That's right; it had been a year since we last saw each other so I thought we should celebrate."

"Is that so… How long have you known each other? How often did you meet?"

_'This is becoming an interrogation.'_ Sonic decided that he would still answer this question. "Two years, this is the third time we meet and we met with a year between each time. Is that enough information miss officer?" He teased her with a grin, which didn't seem to affect her at all.

"Where does she currently live? Can she come in this dimension as she pleases?"

"You know that five star hotel in Spagonia? I got her a room there. And no, she can't come as she wants, nor can I go as I want to her dimension."

"You've never told me about her either…"

"C'mon Amy you're acting like a real cop right now. We're on a date to have fun, so shouldn't you stop thinking about that misunderstanding? I thought you two made up after that fight."

The pink hedgehog's eyes widened in realization. "I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright, I'm just glad you're back to normal now."

"It's always like that, whenever I'm thinking about you it's like I'm another person and if there's a woman next to you then I just become crazy… I hate it."

"Hey it's alright."

"But I always cause troubles!"

"I know and it's fine."

"I nearly hurt Blaze badly yesterday! Luckily she knew how to defend herself but what if it had been somebody that didn't know how to fight?"

"It's okay to be-"

"How is that okay?!" Amy stood up and hit the table with her fists, tears falling from her eyes as she started sobbing. "I'm such a terrible person…"

Sonic stood up as well and went next to the crying girl to pat her head. "No, you're a great person Amy. You're strong, kind and you've helped me more times than I can count. Don't think badly of yourself like that."

"…But what if I hurt somebody?"

"You won't."

"How can you be that sure?"

"Because otherwise at least fifty percent of my fans would be in a hospital by now if you did." The blue blur responded with a smirk.

This answer didn't particularly please Amy, but it still did cheer her up a bit. "…Thanks Sonic."

"No problem!"

The door behind them opened up as the chef came from it, two places with silverware on each of his hands. "If it isn't our very best customer! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised when we received the command downstairs." The chef noticed that his client wasn't with the same girl as last time and chose to avoid commenting on it when he noticed that the pink hedgehog was drying her tears. "Enjoy your meals!" After putting everything on the tables the chef left just as quickly as he came.

"…Is it really fine for me to be with you here Sonic?" Amy asked, ashamed of how she had acted just a moment ago.

"Of course it is, we're on a date right? And you heard the chef; he said we had to enjoy the meals so let's dig in!"

The hedgehogs sat down once more and Sonic this time started the discussion as they both were more at ease than before. Amy gradually begun to smile and laugh again as they started to talk about everything and nothing, remembering the good times they had together with their friends.

It seemed like Amy had acquired multiple jobs during their adventures and had to change often as they either got destroyed or she went missing too long while helping her friends to beat Robotnik.

Sonic felt bad for her but fortunately, she had an easy time getting new jobs as she made every place she worked at had far better business than before she came.

They continue to talk and eat and soon it felt like Amy had completely gone back to normal again. Everything was going well and they spent the rest of the night enjoying each other's company.

It was finally time for both of them to go home and after leaving money on the table, Sonic had helped his friend get down from the roof.

"That was fun Amy. Want me to run you home?" The blue blur asked.

"Ah no thanks, my house isn't very far from here so I can go by myself. We should go more often on dates Sonic!"

"Sure thing!" Sonic grinned "See ya then!" he turned around and was about to take off but the pink hedgehog suddenly grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

"Um Sonic, can I ask you something?"

"What's up?"

"…Do you…" Amy blushed and wanted to look away from the hedgehog, she inhaled and exhaled to calm herself before gathering her courage. "Do you love me, Sonic?"

Sonic wasn't sure of how to answer to this. Yes he did love her although not romantically, to him she was a very precious friend and like a little sister. Not wanting to take any risks and disappoint the pink hedgehog, he put up a smile on his face and answered. "Of course I do!"

Somehow, Amy didn't look happy when she heard those words, even when she thought that she should be. It was like Sonic had said yes and yet…

Why was it that those words made her feel like Sonic was extremely far away when he was standing right in front of her? He had said the words she had wanted to hear for a long time and yet, why did it feel like she couldn't breathe anymore?

Amy swallowed her feelings down her throat; she couldn't talk anymore in fear that she would let everything she's trying to contain out. She only smiled, nodded and then waved goodbye before running away as quickly as she could from the blue blur.

Sonic stood still, thinking that her behavior was odd and then realizing his mistake. _'…I hurt her, didn't I?'_

Droplets of water started to fall from the sky as the dark clouds above began to roar. Slowly but surely, rain poured down all over the town.

"Man, what a terrible night." Sonic sighed as he walked away; saddened that he had just hurt one of his friends.

For once, the hedgehog didn't feel like running back to his lonely house.

* * *

><p>The whole time Blaze had ran to get Cream to her house, she felt like she had been observed by somebody and even after she dropped the rabbit at her house, the feeling was still there.<p>

She stopped after running for a few minutes; she was now in the middle of an unknown jungle. She had chosen to stray from the path she took to get to Sonic's house to confront what or whom might be stalking her.

"You are not good at hiding your presence, show yourself!" The cat called out.

From the corner of her eyes she noticed a black figure coming out of behind a tree, one figure she instantly recognized.

"I wasn't even trying to hide it, cat." The ebony hedgehog spoke.

"You are… Shadow, is that correct? Why are you following me?" The cat said, remembering the sudden threats the hedgehog had told her back at Rouge's nightclub. "Didn't you say that you'd let me go?"

"I said "for now" and guess what? Time's up." Shadow pulled out the same gun as last time and pointed it at the cat once more. "Nobody will interrupt us. Now, tell me what you're hiding."

Blaze didn't answer and got her fighting stance ready.

"Silent treatment huh? Fine by me, I'll make you talk by force if I have to." Shadow started shooting at the cat, firing multiple rounds with amazing precision and hadn't it been for Blaze's speed, she would've become swiss cheese. "Oh? So you can dodge bullets on reaction." The hedgehog calmly stated as he reloaded his gun. "Then, how about this?"

Shadow shot once more and again, Blaze dodge the first bullet on reaction, what she hadn't expected was that the second bullet was already where she was in the next spot. She barely dodged the next one as four others came just as viciously as the previous one, three of them grazed her arms giving her light cuts on them. Her nimble body had allowed her to narrowly avoid all of the bullets without sustaining too much damages.

"Your dodging path is easy to predict and yet you still manage to avoid the oncoming bullets. Tch, that's why I hate cats, you're too damn flexible." He said as he started reloading his gun again.

Blaze wasted no more time as she rushed to close the distance between her and Shadow. _'I have to get rid of that weapon!'_ She thought as she attempted to kick the gun out of his hand.

"How naïve, you're probably thinking that if you manage to take my pistol away, it'd be easier to fight me." The dark hedgehog lobbed his weapon in the air before giving a brutal kick to the cat who blocked it with lots of difficulty. "Did you seriously think I wasn't taking my time to reload on purpose? Are you an idiot?"

"Such power…!" Blaze let out through gritted teeth. This kick wasn't something Blaze had experienced before. At least not from something that was alive, it was more comparable to getting hit by Nega's bigger robots.

Shadow didn't bother picking up his gun as he crossed his arms. "I'm done playing."

With incredible speed, Shadow closed the distance between both of them to start his assault. Blaze was extremely surprised, not in her life had she expected to fight somebody as fast as her blue friend and especially not one as strong as Shadow.

Each of the dark hedgehog's punches were extremely accurate and each of them assured the next strike, it was like fighting the complete opposite of Sonic. She very much felt like every single attack he had done up to this point were to force her to react in a certain way. _'Seeing how powerful this kick was… I cannot allow myself to get hit.'_ Blaze thought.

"You're also probably thinking that dodging my attacks is the best way to deal with me, right?" The hedgehog said, his tone almost showing that he was already bored of this fight.

Blaze's eyes widened, how could he know what she was thinking? The cat had frozen for only an instant but that moment was all the dark hedgehog needed to land a strike to the cat's face, sending her crash straight into a tree.

"…Impressive, you managed to block at the last moment."

Blaze panted heavily, she had barely managed to block it thanks to her natural reflexes and even after blocking it felt like she had been hit at full force anyway. _'This strength is absurd!...'_

"Are you finally going to tell me what you're hiding? I know there's something, something powerful…"

Blaze stayed silent, she wasn't about to tell anybody of either the Sol Emeralds or of her fire powers. She winced as she stood up, her whole body hurting but her mind ready to fight again.

"I'll have to get slightly more serious then." Shadow's hand rose up as a small yellow bolt of energy formed, growing larger by the second. "Chaos Spear!" He shouted before throwing the arrow in the direction of the cat.

Blaze dived to the side as the bolt went right past her, completely destroying the tree she had crashed in. "What in the world?!"

The dark hedgehog wasted no time throwing two more of them. Blaze avoided the first one once more making it explode on another tree and jumped away from the second one. The second bolt surprised the cat by following her and nearly hitting her again.

The bolt made a sharp U-turn as it once again aimed itself at the cat. She tried to dodge but was stopped by a powerful kick to her side.

"Forgot about me, cat?" Shadow said, sending another bolt at her. "You're done for."

Blaze watched in fear as the yellow arrows came to her and just as they were about to hit her…

The spears disappeared in thin air.

"…What?" Shadow exclaimed, shocked of what had happened. The cat hadn't moved a single inch and his energy levels were completely fine so why would his attacks suddenly disappear?

Blaze wasn't sure of what was going on but took the opportunity to take a breather as she jumped up on the branches of a tree. _'I felt something when they disappeared, did the Sol Emeralds protect me?'_ She thought. If that was the case then would they protect her again? She formulated a plan in her mind to finally beat Shadow. It was a reckless one but what else could she do? She couldn't run away from him and couldn't stay defensive forever, she had to fight back.

The cat jumped high into the air as she dived at the hedgehog. "Fool." He said preparing another bolt of energy, sure that this one would hit.

He threw it right when she was close enough, but just like the previous time, the bolt disappeared. The surprised hedgehog didn't move as Blaze kicked him powerfully on the face, landing a very clean hit. Shadow back flipped in midair to land on his feet, a scowl replacing his emotionless expression. The kick had been effective as he could feel the taste of blood in his mouth. He spat it out in disgust and anger.

_'That cat… Is she nullifying my attacks?'_ Shadow prepared another bolt of energy, this time much bigger and longer. He held onto it before throwing it at full speed like a javelin as a test to see if his theory was true.

Blaze sidestepped the spear right on time as it grazed her, tearing her clothes slightly. The hedgehog's eyes narrowed when he noticed that the moment the spear was next to the cat, its size diminished greatly in a very short span of time.

_'I was right, she nullifies a part of my attacks. Weaker ones will be useless then… Still, how is she-'_ Shadow stopped thinking when he saw that Blaze has closed the distance between them and was about to start her assault.

It was finally time for her to be on the offensive. Not having to worry about either his pistol or his long ranged bursts anymore made the cat much more confident. They started duking it out, each trying to take the advantage on the other to get that single decisive hit.

If you looked at it from afar, you'd think it was a simple exchange of blows but in reality neither was getting touched. They predicted each feint, avoided attacks and counter attacks while moving around the area as if they were dancing a brutal dance.

Finally, Blaze managed to land a hit. Sneakily using her fire power under her shoes to boost her body upward at a much greater speed than normal, she hit the hedgehog right under the chin with her knee, disorienting the hedgehog for a few seconds which was all she needed to inflict a tremendous amount of damages with lightning fast kicks on his upper body.

She jumped and attempted to kick Shadow's head but he had already recovered. He grabbed her foot on reaction and threw her away as far as he could to have some breathing room.

The hedgehog felt the familiar taste of blood inside of his mouth, he wiped his lips with his hand to get rid of the red liquid that had spilled before giving the cat a death glare. "You're pissing me off." Shadow sounded extremely angry as he pulled out a Chaos Emerald from behind his back. "I'm going to destroy you! Chaos Control!" He shouted as he suddenly disappeared from Blaze's sights and reappeared behind her.

Her instincts forced her to duck just before the dark hedgehog's kick connected with her back; she attempted to counter attack but the hedgehog teleported away again, this time above her.

Having foreseen this, Blaze jumped away from her spot and started to run as fast as she could to stall for time. '_How is he so fast?! I couldn't even see him, I need to get a new strat-'_ She was interrupted when Shadow appeared in front of her, grabbed her collar and gave her a nasty head butt.

"Gah!" she shout out in pain. Shadow wasn't done; as he punched two more times the disoriented cat who couldn't block anymore.

A red aura surrounded his right fist and just as it connected with her gut, Shadow roared in anger. "**CHAOS BLAST!**"

The supposed reaction that attack should've had would have been an explosion that would have sent his opponent flying brutally while not affecting the user. Instead, sparks crackled from the red aura as it became disturbingly black, the hedgehog's attack becoming uncontrollable.

The explosion happened but the attack touched both animals. Shadow felt intense pain in his arm from the recoil; it was the first time his chaos blast had acted up like that. He was now sure that his guess hadn't been correct and that his opponent wasn't negating his attacks but opposing them. With what, he didn't know but one thing was certain: he couldn't use his powers against her.

_'Should I use chaos control to stop time? If she isn't affected by that then I'd just waste energy, my right arm is not in a good state either. Do I risk it or not?'_ He weighed his options: Chaos Control could end this fight right now but the possibility that the cat had another trick up her sleeve made the dark hedgehog reconsider this strategy. He looked at where his opponent had landed…

Blaze stood up with great difficulty, heavily panting and profusely bleeding where Shadow's fist had hit her. The worse wound was the one on her gut; the chaos energy had affected her badly to the point that her usually sturdy body had been extremely weakened. The Sol Emeralds in the cat's coat were slowly trying to heal her, albeit it was too slow to be practical in her current situation.

The dark hedgehog's eyes scanned the ground; his gaze stumbled upon the weapon he had dropped minutes ago. He swiftly picked it up, remembering he had loaded it with new bullets before he threw it away. The cat was in no condition to fight back, thus his gun would bring him an easy victory, or so he thought.

Blaze hadn't moved from her side yet, her mind trying to figure out a way to get out of this mess. Using her power would be the same as losing this fight but without it she stood little to no chance against the powerful hedgehog. The problem wasn't that he was stronger and faster than her, it was that he was much more cunning: using his own abilities to trap his opponent as well as forcing them to move as he wishes is not something just anybody can do, especially on an experienced fighter like Blaze.

And even if she managed to use her power, what would it bring her? He would probably reveal it to Rouge and it would escalate quickly from there. The only solution she has to avoid this problem would be to get rid of the element that would reveal spread her secrets.

_'Getting rid of the problem would mean... to kill. But I am no murderer.'_ She reminded herself.

She also thought that even if she wanted she might not manage to win against him although she'd be using her fire, it would only even the odds of the fight. Using her burning form was out of the question too for obvious reasons.

Shadow slowly walked to the cat. She waited, hoping an opportunity would come or that she would manage to make one.

Blaze remembered one of the tricks a pirate had attempted on her. _'Will it even work on him?'_ She gritted her teeth, in her state she could only be optimist in the gamble she was about to take on.

She put her leg forward, as if she was about to start running at the hedgehog again, which made him slow down, wary of the cat. Then, just as she was about to run, she let out an audible pained noise and put a hand over the wound on her body, stopping her from moving.

Shadow looked almost pleased, the cat was definitely in no condition to fight against him.

Blaze had noticed the change in the facial expression of the hedgehog; she had gotten the reaction she wanted from him. By feinting pain and making it look like she couldn't run anymore, her opponent would let his guard down much more than before.

There was just one problem with her plan: the pain she had faked was actually very real, running in her condition was the craziest and stupidest idea she could have. But she had to bear with it; it was her only solution to winning this fight.

She only had to wait for the hedgehog to be closer so that she was sure she wouldn't fail.

Step by step, Shadow walked closer and closer. When there were about two meters left, Blaze gritted her teeth and pushed through the pain, bursting forward at great speeds and catching the hedgehog by surprise.

Blaze's first priority was not getting rid of Shadow's weapon; she realized that if she was close enough then it would be difficult for him to aim properly. To her surprise, Shadow smirked.

In reaction to her sudden drive, the hedgehog threw his gun upward, high in the sky. It looked like he had already been aware of the cat's plan. She stopped breathing for a second _'Just… Just how far do his predictions go?! He can't possibly read minds, can he?!'_ she thought.

Nonetheless, she did not falter and pressed on.

Blaze was the first one to strike. Her relentless barrage was put to a stop by the hedgehog's superior reaction time by grabbing her wrists. Blaze's foot stomped on his to refrain him from moving before the cat attacked with her head, hurting herself in the process.

But at least it had effect and unlike Sonic, Shadow didn't have quite the same durability. He shook his head violently as if to get rid of the pain and glared at Blaze.

The gun was slowly falling and it was only a matter of time before the hedgehog would get both it and enough space back to shoot the weakened cat. The hedgehog jumped in the direction of his weapon, hoping to get a hold on it.

Adrenaline pumped through Blaze's body as she followed Shadow in the air, thinking of a way to end this battle. If she couldn't use her power, then what could she do against somebody as strong as this hedgehog? _'There has to be another way!...'_

_'Another way?'_

Blaze's mind suddenly traced back to when she had used her fire in a different manner the day before when she warmed up Sonic.

She had used her power differently and got a specific result, which was not burning the hedgehog but heating him.

_'My flames are versatile, think Blaze, think! How do I use them without him realizing?'_

The cat and the hedgehog were nearing the falling gun; Shadow grabbed it first thanks to his superior speed. He took aim, his eyes locked on his target, ready to shoot any second now.

_'His eyes!'_

It was like lightning had struck the cat when she finally found what she wanted. What she was about to do was an immense wager, an attempt at something she had never tried to do before in her life.

Right now, it was do or die.

Hastily bringing her hands in front of her, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her palms, making strong flames hidden right under her gloves. Her hands began to glow brighter and brighter, making Shadow hesitate on pulling the trigger, carefully observing what his opponent was trying to achieve.

All of a sudden, the light that came from her palms became intense, blinding Shadow and forcing him to put an arm in front of him to cover his eyes.

"Ugh, damn it!"

_'If he can't see me using my flames then I can use them as much as I want to!'_

This was her only chance and she took the opportunity. Using fire to boost herself forward to close the distance as fast as possible, she unleashed an onslaught of attacks. Each strike she did whether punch or kick, she used her fire to thrusts her limbs at greater speeds and multiplying the damages she normally did.

The cat didn't stop for a minute, making sure that every hit landed on his face to keep the dark hedgehog's eyes shut. She continued to the point where her fists hurt, weakening her assault and giving Shadow a large enough window of opportunity to react.

Shadow's eyes finally shot open, his glare fiercer than ever. He caught the cat's arm and pulled her before punching her away.

"Gah!" Blaze shouted in pain, falling on the ground, on her back. She managed to stand up once more yet this time she was sure she wouldn't be able to fight properly for a while now.

_'What now?...'_

"Judging from the state of your body, I can safely say that this fight is over…" He said as he casually checked the bullets inside of his gun, not even bothering to look at the cat anymore. "For you, that is."

He slowly walked forward until he was close enough to Blaze to put the tip of his gun directly on her forehead. "Your breathing is irregular, you're wounded and your whole body is trembling." He pushed his gun further, slightly pushing the cat's head away. "Yet you're still trying to come up with a way to fight me, attempting to create another of your idiotic plans. How stubborn can you be? Face it, you lost."

Blaze was frustrated at her own helplessness; her opponent was still reading her like a book, mocking her and her thoughts. Coming up with a plan? What plan? The only way she could even hope to touch him was to surprise him with something he couldn't predict, such as her power.

This situation was completely hopeless.

"I'll have to give you some praises, not many lasts this long against me and not one has held back either before. Not until I fought you. Now I understand how the people I crushed felt when I held back…" He let out a low growl, his glare becoming more intense and his fingers on the trigger becoming restless. "It's incredibly **frustrating**."

Cold sweat dripped on the cat's back, her breathing slightly accelerating as her entire body was now completely alarmed. She clenched her teeth hard, hoping it would calm her down, trying to understand what nonsense he was talking about. Why was he so angry after her when he had basically pinned her down?

They stared down at each other in silence for a few seconds until Blaze noticed that something was not right. It looked like Shadow was staring in her direction rather than at her directly and then it dawned on her…

"You… Who exactly are you talking to?"

For less than a second, Shadow looked extremely shocked, as if for once Blaze had managed to see through the man.

"Who are you angry after?"

"Two steps." The hedgehog continued, ignoring on purpose the cat. "You were two steps late during the entirety of this fight... And yet, while holding back, you still managed to hit me multiple times. Yes, that is indeed very frustrating for me, isn't it? But enough chit chat…"

"...Because you yourself aren't holding back? How prideful can you be-"

Shadow suddenly aimed at the ground and shot, startling Blaze and making a bullet hole right in front of Blaze's feet before putting the canon back on her forehead. "I'm not holding back, I'm being held back, that's different you damn cat. Now, either you show me what you're hiding or-"

"Your anger…" She interrupted him, becoming upset herself. "You're just like her… Redirecting it on anyone whenever an opportunity appears, using as many excuses as you can to vent it out and- Ugh!" The hedgehog violently hit the cat in the face with the back of his gun, definitely not appreciating his opponent's comments. She stood her ground, facing him again.

"**Shut the hell up or risk getting a hole in your head.**" The hedgehog's eyes brimmed with a murderous intent and were full of hatred.

"Only ever thinking of yourself… I cannot allow it." Blaze dared to answer, Shadow pressed the trigger of the gun but Blaze swiftly pushed the gun away at the exact same moment, making the shot miss completely.

"Only ever thinking of myself? You dare call me selfish after I saved this cursed planet and those pitiful humans more times than I can count?!" Shadow's anger boiled, sparks of chaos energy surrounding him.

"Using your past deeds as excuses? Yes, you truly are just like **her**…" The look in Blaze's eyes had changed when she remembered that one person she despised, that one person that had betrayed her so early in her life.

Blaze was angry. Not after Shadow but after how he acted and how much it made her remember the only person aside from Nega that she might hate from the bottom of her heart.

Fueled by rage, Blaze forcefully stabilized her breathing and, swifter than ever, punched the hedgehog away from her.

Adrenaline pumped in her whole body as she was unable to feel the pain from her wounds anymore.

"Cat…" Shadow spat blood at his opponent's direction before glaring at her. "**I'm going to fucking kill you.**" The hedgehog lobbed the gun away before his hand reached for one of the ring on his arms.

Taking off his limiters was dangerous for him to do this but he couldn't care anymore, he was pissed off and was going to put an end to Blaze's life even if he had to hurt himself in the process.

"You said you wished to see what I hid this whole time, didn't you?" Blaze put her right hand forward as if it were a canon. "Then watch well, hedgehog, for that is the last thing you will see."

They tensed up, carefully watching the movements of the others yet not quite looking at each other.

If you looked at it from the outside, they were both in similar cases. Both were fighting their past grudges rather than their opponent; willing to put their life and secrets on the line to get rid of the memories and stress that plagued their hearts, if only for a moment.

One had decided to let out his anger to ease his pain, the other had kept everything to herself for years.

They both were about to reach a point of no return.

"THAT'S ENOUGH." Exclaimed a robotic voice.

Blaze and Shadow snapped from their trance, instantly recognizing the machine that was walking toward them.

"Omega..." Shadow looked as his mechanical friend, aware that Rouge had sent the robot after him. "Stay out of this."

"NEITHER ONE OF YOU IS IN ANY CONDITION TO CONTINUE FIGHTING. QUERY: COULD I TAKE ON BOTH OF YOU IN A FIGHT AT THIS POINT IN TIME? ANSWER: YES."

"I have no reason to listen to you, so get the hell awa-"

The robot approached the hedgehog who didn't move and grabbed the hand that was about to slip his limiter off. "YOU KNOW FULL WELL THE CONSEQUENCES OF TAKING OFF ONE OF YOUR INHIBITOR RINGS. THIS SITUATION DOES NOT CALL FOR THIS POWER, YOU ARE BEING IRRATIONAL."

The hedgehog attempted to kick Omega's head out of anger but the robot blocked it with ease.

"LET'S GO."

As much as Shadow hated to admit it, his friend was right, he was going overboard. He looked at the cat one last time, having calmed down enough to think straight.

"…I'll let you off for today, cat." He said before blasting off at full speed in direction of Rouge's club, leaving Omega and Blaze alone.

The feline had been watching the whole time, keeping her guard up just in case. Her muscles relaxed slightly once Shadow was nowhere to be seen anymore, she was very grateful for Omega's intervention.

"Omega, was it? Thank you, I'm in your debt."

"YOUR PRIORITY SHOULD BE TO GET THAT WOUND CHECKED." The robot said, pointing at the bleeding gash on her abdomen that could be seen through her torn jacket.

The adrenaline had numbed the pain down before but now it was slowly coming back. "Do not worry about me; I'll manage to take care of it like I have done in the past. Let us meet again another time then, farewell."

Blaze started walking in the opposite direction. She had chosen this spot to fight against Shadow for one reason: it was one place that she remembered being somewhat close to Sonic's hidden house. Surely, she would find everything she needed to take care of herself at the blue blur's home.

Aside from the pain she felt now, her thinking process was back to normal and even though she had put the recent battle behind her already, there was that one, lingering thought that still bothered her, the one that had sparked the flames of her rage.

_'Mother…'_

* * *

><p>Sonic had taken the long way back home, unable to focus on getting to his house as he replayed the scene where Amy ran away in his mind over and over, trying to find a way he could've avoided hurting her feelings.<p>

After walking for ten minutes once Amy had left, he had run around different countries for an hour and was only just now starting to follow the path to his home.

He stopped and groaned. "This isn't like me." He shook his head. "What's done is done; I'll have to cheer her up later."

Regaining a bit of his confidence, the hedgehog neared his house and opened the door.

When he saw that the lights were off, he thought that Blaze hadn't come back. He suddenly heard a soft but pained breathing and quickly lit up the room by pressing a nearby switch.

What he found sitting on the couch was his fiery friend, bruised and bloody, struggling with a small first aid kit.

Sonic's first reaction was to immediately help Blaze with the medical bag. "What happened?!" He blurted out, slightly panicking when he saw the state she was in. "Were you attacked by Eggman?!"

"Calm down Sonic… Most of my wounds have healed already."

The hedgehog stared at the cat in disbelief until he saw it for himself that she was not lying; from what he could see on her slightly torn clothes, the wounds on her arms were now only small scars and the bruises on her face didn't look that severe anymore.

The only one that looked serious was the one on her belly, it was still bleeding and it looked very painful.

"I was not attacked by Eggman… He wouldn't be able to create such a wound." She panted. It looked like her energy was draining by the second. "Not one that would require me to forcefully extract the Sol Emeralds' energy to keep the damage to a minimum…"

Sonic was about to take the first aid kit in his hands when he noticed that his gloves had chili sauce left on them. He went at supersonic speeds, threw his current gloves away and washed his bare hands before coming back and started checking out the content of the kit.

"So what attacked you then? Was it that time monster?" He asked, taking out a small bottle from the bag.

"No, it wasn't…" The cat's eyebrow rose when she noticed what Sonic was doing. "Are you going to treat me?"

"Yeah, why? Do you think I'm gonna leave you in this state?"

"No, it's just that I didn't expect you to be… knowledgeable on using medical tools."

"I had to. Before I even met Tails, I got hurt often while fighting Eggman so I needed to learn how to use basic stuff like that." The hedgehog looked a bit hurt that his friend thought he didn't know how to take care of himself. He knew he wasn't particularly smart but it didn't mean he couldn't survive on his own. "You don't seem to trust me though Blaze."

The cat rose up, upset that he would think so. "What? No, it's not like that! Ack!…" She sat back down, her sudden movements causing her pain. "Ugh… I was just surprised that's all. I trust you; I always did and always will."

"Glad we're on the same page of thoughts then!" He answered with a smile. "Alright, I'm going to disinfect that wound now, I'm going to need to take off your jacket… Uh, you're fine with that?"

"T-there's no reason for me to not comply especially after what I just said…" Is what she said but what she was currently thinking was different. _'This is for medical purposes, this is for medical purposes, this is for medical purposes…'_ She kept repeating in her head, clearing her mind of any misunderstandings.

The blue blur himself wasn't particularly calm either. It had been on very rare occasions that he had seen a naked body of the opposite sex and even when it had happened he hadn't dared to touch one, much less without his gloves.

Sure, Blaze's bra protected her modest breasts from sights but Sonic still felt very embarrassed.

His senses came back to him partially once he saw the unpleasant looking wound. The hedgehog took the bottle of disinfectant, pouring a bit of it on a bit of cotton he had taken out from the first aid box.

"I-I don't even want to imagine what the medias would do if they took a photo of us right now."

"Boy would I be in troubles, every single girl fan I have would chase me with an axe." The hedgehog said, chuckling. "That's definitely not a pretty gash… Hold on, this might sting a bit."

Sonic put the cotton on the wound and applied some pressure, making the cat wince.

"Ugh… C-cuts usually are not meant to be pretty, Sonic."

"Why, if you still can joke about that then there's no reason for me to be worried." He jokingly said. He then moved his free hand around Blaze's abdominal area to see if he would get a reaction to check for possible internal damages. The hedgehog had always expected a girl body's to be soft and delicate but to his surprise, Blaze's was rough and sturdy, making it obvious that she trained daily to keep herself in shape.

Sonic's hand stumbled upon a scar under the cat's fur. _'Probably from one of those battles- hmm?'_ He moved his hand slightly and then found another, and then another again. Every time he moved his hand he would find a new scar, understanding that Blaze had fought much, much more than what Sonic thought she had. While most scars were small, there were too much bigger ones that not even the cat's fur could fully hide.

After a few awkward minutes of silence and Blaze wondering what was taking so long, he spoke up again. "So, um… You still didn't tell me what happened."

"I fought a black colored hedgehog that found me suspicious."

This statement made the blue blur raise an eyebrow. There was only one dark hedgehog he knew of that would be capable of inflicting those wounds. "…Don't tell me it was Shadow?"

The cat nodded, recognizing the name. "Yes, that was his name, we met at Rouge's private quarters, at her club. He sensed the energy of the sol emeralds… And the energy of my power, though he couldn't figure out what exactly they were."

"Your power can be detected?"

"I was just as surprised as you were."

"That's crazy. What happened next?"

"After our… encounter, I brought back Cream to her house. He followed me, asking that I show him what I was hiding. I refused thus we fought, I hid both the Sol Emeralds and my power over fire while we did."

The blue hedgehog was about to take some bandages but stopped, staring at the cat in disbelief. "Hold on. Are you telling me that you fought Shadow without your fire?"

"That's correct."

"…That's… Blaze, what you did was close to insane, I'm surprised you survived facing him while holding back."

"…Are you mad at me?" She asked, staring down at Sonic, afraid to have worried her friend.

"I should be; I really should… But honestly, I can't help but be amazed at how strong you can be."

"While I highly doubt this is how you're supposed to flatter a lady… I feel honored."

"Of course you do, you're getting praised by one of the strongest guy in the universe! Just promise me you won't hold back against Shadow next time, he can go pretty crazy in fights. I mean, he did almost kill me, twice."

"What a frightening being…"

The hedgehog finished wrapping the bandages tightly enough around the cat's body, making sure they would stop her bleeding. "And… done. Alright, this should hold up well. That wound doesn't look like it was caused by a normal attack though…"

"Thank you. A red aura engulfed his fist when he cried out the name "Chaos Blast" I believe. It reacted very strangely and then it suddenly blew both of us away."

"Chaos Blast huh, no wonder it looks so severe, even Tails wasn't sure of what directly getting in contact with Chaos energy could do to somebody of your dimension... Want me to run you to a hospital?"

"I'll be fine, thank you."

"If you're worried about privacy I know one that-"

"Sonic, I appreciate that you're trying to take care of me but I've been through a lot, my body can handle a little bit of Chaos power. And I'd rather not have too many people see my body like that…"

Although one could think that Blaze simply didn't like to get seen without her coat, which was true, the hedgehog immediately understood the real reason. "…Is it because of your scars?"

She looked away, ashamed. "Unfitting and unsightly for one bearing the title of princess, isn't it? The name reserved for women with the smoothest fur and skin, it's almost laughable that I still bear this title..."

"It's not. Every scar that you get, you should be proud of it. It means that you came out of your battle alive and that's what's important."

"That would be correct for a warrior but that is not what I am considered to be by them. I am a guardian at best, a princess when needed, but not a soldier."

"You care too much about how others define you." The hedgehog answered, frowning.

"It is not just a group of individuals that see me as such Sonic, it is my entire world that does."

"The entire world huh?..."

"There was one time where I had the world against me for a crime that was done by somebody that looked a lot like me." Sonic said, reminiscing old memories. "It didn't matter what I said, they wouldn't listen to me. They even put me in some sort of crazy prison to make sure I didn't escape… Well that wasn't the biggest problem though since Tails and Amy got me out of there. Not only was the real culprit that stole my identity still running loose but it also made the relation between human and animals much more tense."

"…Why are you telling me all of this?"

"To show you that you're not alone on this and that I can help you." The hedgehog replied with a confident smirk before continuing his tale. "I ignored the world and tried to find the truth as quickly as possible. Sounds easy when I say it like that right?"

The cat didn't reply, already aware of the answer.

"Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't at all." His smirk disappeared and was replaced with a frown instead. "I kept seeing wanted posters with my face on them everywhere I went and aside from my close friends, no human or animals wanted to have any business with me anymore."

"That's…"

"All because the world defined me as a criminal, if it wasn't for the fact that I fought the real culprit early in that adventure, I would've believed myself to be the bad guy because they told me so." The hedgehog thought about that possibility for a few more seconds before continuing, his smile coming back on his face. "I know it's not the same as your situation but anyway, the point is that nobody tells you what you should be. So I'm going to ask you Blaze…" The hedgehog pointed a finger at the cat. "Who are you?"

"I am…" The cat hesitated yet the answer to this question was so simple. "I am myself?"

"That's right! You're you. Nothing else, nothing more, you're Blaze. Only yourself should define yourself, nobody else."

The blue blur's words made her feel at ease as if a small weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She noticed that, whenever the hedgehog spoke with her, she always felt lighter and that everything felt more enjoyable. How grateful she was to have a friend like him, even if she would never show it, her pride holding her down from doing so.

"What a… simple way of thinking you have Sonic, I'm envious."

"Simpler is always better. And if some people don't agree with you then I'd gladly help you in knocking some sense into them."

"Would you truly take on my world just for this?"

"You know me, Blaze."

She closed her eyes and relaxed her head on the couch, a small smirk on her face, amused by his answer. "Of course you would."

The hedgehog sat back next to the wounded cat again as they shared a few minutes of silence before he decided it'd be better for her to be lying on her back on something more comfortable.

"Okay you might not want to get to the hospital but I'll carry you to your room at least." Just as Sonic was about to carry her, Blaze put a hand forward to stop him.

"I can walk on my own." She said as she stood up, painfully, and tried to move toward the staircase.

"Fine, I won't carry you but you're going to at least lean on my shoulder, no complaints!" The hedgehog said as he forcefully put the cat's arm behind his neck to make her use him as a support. "Man, you can be so stubborn when you want to."

"Me, stubborn? Look who's talking." The cat answered back, embarrassed as she turned her head away, her face reddening by the second. Yet she was unable to hide her smile, appreciating the care the hedgehog gave her. It felt so nice to have somebody she could lean on even when she just didn't want to admit it and while she never wanted to rely on it, she greatly appreciated the kindness her friends would give her, especially Sonic, always the first to jump in the fray to help her out.

"No idea what you talking about Blaze." The hedgehog playfully said. "How was your day by the way? Y'know, aside from fighting Shadow."

"It was… Interesting. Rouge is quite the nice person; we watched movies and ate ice cream alongside Cream and her."

"Sounds like you had fun." He said, glad to hear that it hadn't been as bad as his own day.

"Yes. What about you?"

This time, it was the hedgehog's turn to feel uneasy, scratching his chin with his free hand, not very proud of how the date he had with Amy went. "Um… I can't really say the date went uh, fine."

"How come?"

"I uh, sorta hurt her feelings a bit I think."

"What did you tell her?"

"More like what didn't I say… I'll tell you another time, you should rest tonight." The hedgehog said as he let the cat free, letting her inside of her room by herself.

"Thank you. Tomorrow then?" She asked, feeling bad for the pink hedgehog. She wasn't particularly mad at Sonic but felt like she was slightly responsible for what happened to her, after all it had been her idea to get Amy on a date with the blue blur.

"Yeah, just don't expect it to be the first thing I tell you in the morning."

"Fine by me. Sleep well then."

"You too, night!"

With that, the door to the guest bedroom closed.

Sonic crossed his arms, frowning at the thought of his bruised friend and that was why, before he headed to sleep, he had one particular person he had to visit right now.

The hedgehog rushed in direction of the infamous' bat club, knowing full well he'd find him there.

Blaze heard Sonic go outside, already knowing he was going to get himself into troubles because of her. She sighed, not having anymore strength to try and stop him, she then lied on her bed, not even bothering to change her clothes. Her vision started to get blurry, the cat allowed herself to relax.

_'I'm so glad he wasn't disgusted by my scars...'_ She smiled, the warmth of the hedgehog's hands still on her body, unsure if she deserved to keep this feeling on her. A warmth unlike her fire, a kind warmth.

Maybe for tonight, it was okay for her to keep that warmth with her, just for a bit longer, just this once, this warmth she had subconsciously longed to feel since her childhood...

Blaze slowly fell into Morpheus' arms, thinking that perhaps her wounds weren't that bad after all...


	12. Keep Talking

**Don't worry dear readers, this fanfic isn't dead, nor have I lost interest in this story. I in fact am very motivated to write again for this story again. I've entered college a few days ago and I now basically live on my own so I don't have internet yet so I have to use my college's wifi to upload chapters until I get my own connection.**

**I don't have anything else than writing though to rest and/or divert myself so the updates might be a bit faster than the usual wait.**

**Enjoy this short chapter.**

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><p><em>Keep Talking<em>

"So… You got your butt kicked?"

Rouge was sitting on the sofa of her living room, admiring her well polished nails. Shadow had just come back and had sat down next to the bat in silence, his arm crossed as he absently stared at the television, his thoughts elsewhere.

He snapped from them when he heard the bat's taunt. "I didn't." He answered calmly, knowing the bat would mess with him on purpose as soon as she saw him in his state.

He had bruises all over him, dried blood on the corners of his mouth and the arm he had used Chaos Blast with had its fur completely ruffled.

"Yeah you're looking really handsome right now aren't you? Nice touch of makeup on your face- No wait, that's blood." Rouge said, her focus on the turned off television in front of them.

Shadow rolled his eyes and ignored that comment. "She's strong and had experience in battle, hadn't it been for Omega I would've won that fight."

"Oh yes, please remind me next time I try to make friends that they need to be tough enough to handle the Ultimate Life Form's fists or else they're not good enough for me." The bat casually commented, her tone filled with sarcasm.

"You know as much as I do that she was hiding something dangerous." Shadow answered, defending his actions.

"I know she was hiding something alright." Rouge said, her gaze not moving from the black screen. "Doesn't mean she has to be a considered like a walking bomb. I mean I'm a club manager that's secretly a thief that's also secretly a spy of the government! And don't even get me started on your case."

"This is different Rouge."

"Okay Shadow, tell me, what's so different about her and us?" The bat honestly asked, wanting to know what was in the dark hedgehog's mind. If he insisted this much then there just had to be something important he had found out, right?

"She nullified my Chaos Spears and made my Chaos Blast uncontrollable."

"…And?"

"Don't you understand Rouge? To be able nullify Chaos Energy means that she's disrupting Chaos itself."

Rouge stared at her friend and scratched her head, not understanding what he was talking about. "So? I don't get it, what got you so riled up?"

Shadow sighed and rubbed his forehead. "To keep it simple, she could disrupt reality as well. She can somehow use an unknown energy that, once it comes in contact with Chaos energy, either they annihilate each other or provoke unwanted reactions. Imagine what would happen if she can control that as she wished."

The bat nodded and after hearing Shadow's explanation, his outburst at the cat did seem a bit more reasonable. "I understand now but… Still, I trust her enough, she's a sweet girl, I honestly don't see her trying to take over or destroy the world."

"You just met her, she could be-"

"Lying, yes I know." The bat sighed "Go ahead, call me a fool for wanting one decent, mature and normal female friend to do normal activities with like I don't know, shopping or just plain hanging out? Stealing is fun alright but only ever doing that in my spare time makes it dull; I need a break after I've gotten out of that 15th jewelry store with my hundredth diamond."

"Hmph, you're a fool indeed, don't be surprised when I'll have to say "I told you" after having to save you from death again." He replied back, crossing his arms, disagreeing with Rouge's ideas. Not that he could do anything about it but let her do as she pleases until she finds herself in a tight spot and he would end up with the job of cleaning up the mess.

"Glad I can count on your support Shadow." She answered with a smile, appreciating the little care the hedgehog gave her, something rare that came from him to anyone that wasn't her or Omega. "Aside from that, I guess it was good anger relief for you?"

Shadow closed his eyes, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "…A bit."

"Good… Whenever you feel like it we can talk, don't forget about that."

"Right." Shadow looked away, pensive. He remembered his very first outburst of anger after he and Rouge had been ordered to do multiple missions in a row by GUN, which could be understandable.

Shadow was working under them as a mean to hold Maria's promise more easily, after all they had resources he didn't have access to easily. Of course, GUN's treatment had not been the best for the hedgehog or even his friend. There was also the fact that the military he was working for had killed the person he had cared the most about in his life and that obviously did more than slightly bother him.

And of course, when Shadow exploded, the first person that saw him in this state had been Rouge. He remembers clearly how everything had happened so fast yet so brutally. They were on a mission with 6 other GUN agents, Rouge had started to get tired, lacking a small amount of sleep, enough to put her in a state where she joked and taunted more than usual. One of the jokes hit the hedgehog slightly too personally about both of them being more like GUN's dogs than employees.

What set him off was that another GUN agent that was with them at the time had laughed and said "That's right.".

The dark hedgehog replied, growling, the agent took it badly and told him to respect his elders, from there it escalated from shouts to a bloody brawl with their human "teammates".

When Rouge had told him to stop, the hedgehog had nearly hit her too before yelling at her for no real reason, more angry at himself than anything for even having the idea of hitting his trusted partner.

And after a few minutes, he had calmed down, feeling tired physically and mentally as well as feeling awful for yelling at his only friend, not that he'd ever say so out loud but he did still think about it at the time.

He remembers very well the look in Rouge's eyes. It wasn't one that was scared but it was one that was hurt, she was in pain because Shadow had held that rage inside of him for so long and while she may have had noticed, she had never tried to help him out actively but he hadn't tried to seek help either from her and that made her feel like they weren't that close in reality.

Knowing that doing so wouldn't work now, Rouge acted the same as before like a real friend would and once in a while would ask how his day had been or if he wanted to talk.

And though Rouge had never said so aloud, she did feel happy in a guilty way, she had never been that close to the ultimate life form before even if they were already pretty good friends. She somehow doubted he would've stopped if it had been anyone else at his side.

"By the way, about your punishment for hurting my good feline friend…" Rouge started but was interrupted by a knock on the front door. "Well you can start with that, go answer the door, I'm not gonna do it when I'm still in my pajamas."

Shadow wanted to complain but stood up as he went to the door to open it, only to have his eye twitch in reaction when he saw the blue hedgehog standing right in front of him.

"Great, just great, exactly who I needed to see today, what do YOU want now, faker?"

Sonic didn't have his usual amused expression on his face whenever he heard the word "faker". Right now, the blue blur was frowning, his arms crossed in a manner similar to Shadow.

"We've got to talk. Same place as usual." He said before blasting off at a direction Shadow knew well.

"Ugh... What does that guy want?" Shadow asked to no one in particular when Rouge sneaked behind him.

"Oh, you pissed off kitty's boyfriend."

Shadow could see the bat grinning without even looking behind him.

"It's not my fault you don't watch television, read newspapers or listen to radio Shadow, it was everywhere, I was sure it'd have reached even your ears."

With a "hmph", Shadow blasted off as well, following the blue blur's trail.

* * *

><p>A small clearing, the place Sonic and Shadow had decided to settle in whenever they had to fix important problems and they needed the space to do so.<p>

With camouflaging and jamming systems put everywhere around it by Tails to make sure they couldn't be watched or heard, the spot was absolutely perfect when they didn't want GUN or Eggman to spy on them. It was used rarely and Sonic had struggled to make Shadow agree to his decision but it had been worth it.

Sonic had arrived earlier than the other hedgehog and sat down on a nearby rock, waiting for Shadow to come and ten seconds later, the ebony hedgehog arrived.

"Make it quick, I'm not in the mood." Shadow started, obviously annoyed by the blue hedgehog's demand to come.

"Why'd you hurt Blaze?" Sonic immediately asked.

"You're talking about that cat, right?" The blue blur nodded silently "Then that's because she's hiding something dangerous."

"That's it? That's the only reason you thought of to fight her?"

"I know what I'm saying, Sonic. Maybe you're not feeling it but I can and what she is hiding could disrupt reality."

Sonic knew exactly what Shadow was talking about and also knew that it wasn't Blaze's fault. It was because the Sol Emeralds were not meant to be in this world, just like the Chaos Emeralds were not meant to be in her world. It wasn't something that either him, her or anyone really could have control over.

"…Unless you already know about that. Do you, Sonic?"

The blue blur didn't say a word, his eyes locked on Shadow's. Sonic was stuck, saying anything would betray Blaze's trust and although not answering anything would clearly raise Shadow's suspicions, he preferred the latter option over the first.

"I see… It seems we have nothing to say to each other anymore then." The dark hedgehog started to walk away before Sonic appeared in front of him.

"…Shadow, if you ever hurt one of my friends again, whether Blaze or anyone else, this time, we won't just talk." Sonic said, staring menacingly at the hedgehog in front of him.

"Is that a **threat**, faker?"

"Just a warning, **buddy**."

"Hmph."

Shadow gave a last glare at the blue blur before sprinting away, back to Rouge's nightclub, leaving Sonic alone.

The blue hedgehog sighed, he hadn't been able to do much although he had expected it. Shadow wasn't anybody that could be normally reasoned with or just plain scared off.

_'__Time to go home, I think I deserve some sleep now.'_

* * *

><p>Blaze was standing in a completely white space that seemingly had no end.<p>

"Is this a dream?" The cat asked out loud, her voice echoing in the emptiness of the place she was in.

Cream suddenly appeared in front of her, her face without emotions. She motioned for Blaze to follow her before turning around and walking forward.

Blaze followed without questioning before noticing that with every step she took, the color of the space turned a shade of red, becoming darker and darker until the entire space she was in was the color of a dark crimson hue.

Cream pointed in front of her, on the ground was the blue hedgehog laying down, his arms beneath his head to support it and his eyes closed. From afar, it looked like he was just sleeping.

Blaze approached Sonic hesitantly, her muzzle picking up a strange smell, one that she did not immediately recognize.

When she was close enough, she noticed something was leaking from the back of the hedgehog, making the ground even redder than before.

She suddenly felt warm liquid trailing down from her own hands and when she looked at them, Blaze saw that they were even redder than the room around her and that it wasn't just a color, the same smell coming from them and from sonic…

It was blood.

Blaze recoiled in surprise, breathing heavily as she suddenly realized that this wasn't Sonic sleeping, it was his corpse.

"You killed him." Whispered the rabbit behind her.

Blaze jerked her head back to see Cream staring down at her, her usually gentle stare now cruel and without pity. And then, she saw more friends of Sonic appearing behind the rabbit, all having that similar cold and cruel stare.

"I did not! What is the meaning of this?!" Blaze shouted, genuinely afraid and confused.

Amy, Rouge, Tails and even Marine, all looked at her.

"You killed Sonic." They all said in unison and repeated multiple times, forcing the cat to put her hands over her ears to block the sound until she had enough.

Blaze stood up and ran as fast and as far as she could until she could not hear their voices anymore.

She stopped and was breathing heavily, feeling much more tired than she should be when she hadn't even ran this much.

When she looked around her, the red color was gone and it was now completely dark.

And from this darkness came out a shadow, the ebony hedgehog she had fought only hours ago.

"How does it feel to be a murderer?" He asked, his face having a playful smile on his lips as if he was enjoying the show.

"I am not a murderer!"

"Oh yes you are. You've killed plenty already and your so called friends will end up the same way as your victims, starting with that beloved hedgehog of yours."

"I never killed-!" The cat began to say but her mouth was forcefully shut by the hedgehog as he forcefully put his hand over her mouth.

The Shadow in front of her began laughing. "That's hilarious, you're lying to yourself and you're completely believing it. Maybe you need to have your memories refreshed then? Don't you remember that orphanage, ten years ago when your powers manifested? I'm sure your mother does."

With a battle cry, Blaze punched away the hedgehog with a burning fist, setting on fire his fur.

"Well well well, it looks like you actually do remember, don't you, you bloodthirsty monster?" Suddenly, Shadow was being completely burnt by the flames, his skin and fur coming off to reveal another being hidden under it.

An exact copy of herself was standing in front of her with a dangerous looking smile on her face.

"How about we enjoy those delicious past moments together, dear?" with a snap of the doppelganger's fingers, Blaze suddenly couldn't breathe anymore, as if an invisible force had taken all of the air that was in her lungs and in the room they were in.

Images of her past defiled in front of her eyes, moments she wanted to forget forever.

The cries of terrified children, the shouts of panicked adults, the crackling of fire engulfing a building mostly made of wood, greedily eating away the construct and gradually destroying the building, yet nothing could compare to what she saw the next moment...

The look in the eyes of her mother when the Queen understood that her daughter had caused this terrible fire.

An horrified stare, there were no need for words as the Queen's eyes told the young cat at the time everything her mother thought.

'**I have created a monster.**'

"Stop… it…" Blaze managed to say, suffocating, her vision becoming blurry as the laughter of the doppelganger was becoming louder and distorted.

"…ze…" Another voice called, far too weak for Blaze to hear it.

The cat fell to her knees, unable to stand up anymore due to lack of oxygen, her gaze trying to keep its focus on the doppelganger in front of her while her mind was being submerged by flashbacks and dominated by the stare of her mother.

"…Blaze."

Her eyes slowly closed, the feline was nearly giving up on fighting her own psyche…

"BLAZE!"

The cat's eyes shot open, air finally rushing back to her lungs as she saw the blue blur on top of her, his hands pinning down her arms and his face having a very worried look on it.

When the blue hedgehog had arrived home, he picked up the smell of smoke and rushed to the source, finding the cat struggling in her sleep and having set her hands on fire which in reaction set multiple things in the room on fire as well. To stop her from burning anything else, the hedgehog had to forcefully hold her down as she moved a lot in her sleep, looking particularly troubled.

Once she had finally woken up, her flames had died down. Her eyes were teary and tears were about to fall any second now.

"You okay?" The hedgehog released his grip and got down from the bed.

"Sonic, I… What happened?" She asked, the drops of water sliding from her eyes. She quickly rubbed her face to get rid of them.

"I heard noises so I came to check it out, you were going crazy in your sleep. Bad dream?"

"…Yes, a nightmare." Blaze could remember every single detail as clear as the day and it terrified her.

"Alright then," Sonic sat down on the bed and stared at the cat with a smile "Tell me everything."

"…There's no way out telling you about my dream, is there?"

"Nope!"

Blaze sighed, having expected Sonic wanting to help her immediately and hadn't it been for her insisting on hearing his dream last time, he might have left her alone after she would say that she's fine three hundred times. But knowing Sonic; even that might not have stopped him from insisting and forcing the cat to tell him what was on her mind.

"I dreamt that I killed you."

_'__That doesn't start well.'_ The hedgehog thought. "In a fight?"

"No. I'm unsure of how it happened, I just found you lying on the ground, I wasn't aware that you were dead at first."

"How'd you know you even killed me then?"

"Cream appeared in my dream, she said so once I saw that blood was coming from my gloves. Then Rouge, Amy, Tails and Marine appeared and all keep calling me a murderer."

"What happened next?" The hedgehog asked, listening to everything his friend was telling her.

"I ran as far as I could from them, I ended up meeting Shadow and then…"

Blaze stopped mid-sentence, unsure if she would be able to tell everything to her friend.

Sonic waited patiently in silence for the cat to continue, he didn't want to put any pressure on her.

"Aside from saying the same things as well, he showed me… an accident that happened long, long ago."

Even if the cat didn't explain what exactly had happened, the hedgehog had guessed that this accident wasn't just a dropped glass or plate but something that had much more importance than that.

The chances that it was also related to the bloodshed of her dream were also high.

"Hmm… Sorry, I'm not as good as you when it comes to explaining dreams but at least there's one thing I can do." Sonic took one of Blaze's hand and placed it on his chest, near his heart. "I'm alive and your nightmare is over for good now."

_'__How silly.'_ Yes, it was very silly of him, yet it was extremely reassuring to the cat as she felt the vibrations coming from the hedgehog's beating heart. He was alive and well and that alone made her feel happy. How silly of her as well, she thought, that she could be happy just by knowing that her very important friend was fine.

The cat's eyes suddenly narrowed when she noticed that the gloveless hands of the hedgehog were slightly blackened. Blaze grabbed one of his hands and examined it.

"Burn marks… I didn't only do noises while I slept…" The cat tried the stand up and after she struggled a bit, she walked toward the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" The hedgehog asked.

"Away from here. I've hurt you when I was unaware and I'm not going to make the same mistake twice."

"Hold on, hold on! Look, that wasn't your fault; you were panicking in your dream or something-"

"Yes it is my fault, I have to keep myself and this cursed power in check at all time and I didn't! What if it had been an even worse nightmare? Would I have burnt down your entire house with you inside?!"

"Blaze, you're hurt, you lack sleep and you just had a nightmare, you're not in the best condition to reason-"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does!" Sonic said as her grabbed her hand to stop her from going outside. "Even more when you've been hit directly by negative Chaos Energy!"

"…What do you mean?"

"It could be the cause of the nightmare and your powers being a bit unstable. I experienced it firsthand so I know what I'm talking about." He explained, making the cat feel even more nervous now, aware that she wouldn't be able to control her powers and she didn't know for how long.

"Then I should go-"

"You're not going anywhere while wounded like that."

"Let me go!"

"Blaze."

"I-"

"Please."

The cat stopped struggling. She had expected Sonic to yell at her, to force her back to the bed but the hedgehog had simply said one kind word. He released her hand and smiled a gentle smile.

"Look, I know you're strong, I know you probably had worst and I know that I could let you alone and you'll probably be fine the next morning. It doesn't mean I'll just leave you like that."

The cat, defeated, sat back down on the bed, rubbing her eyes in frustration. "I have never, ever seen somebody as obstinate as you in my entire life."

"Yeah I get that a lot." He said with a chuckle before sitting down on a nearby drawer, his legs hanging loosely on the edge.

"…Why? Why do you stay by my side when I'm so unstable I could suddenly burn everything here? Do you get some kind of sick enjoyment from playing with fire?"

_'__Harsh.'_ He thought but excused it since Blaze had all the reasons to be in a bad mood. "I don't, I'm here because I care about friends and it just so happens that you are a friend of mine, so I am going to take care of you whether you like it or not until your wound gets better."

The feline had calmed down a bit and was now lying on the bed and was silently staring at the ceiling; she realized that what she had said might have not been very kind while the hedgehog had done his best to take care of her.

"Have you ever… been afraid of yourself, Sonic?"

"…Yeah." The hedgehog hesitated before continuing. "It started when I transformed for the first time with the Chaos Emeralds, after beating Eggman I realized that I was strong, maybe too strong. If I wanted to, I could've done what he had tried to do."

Blaze listened closely, it was strange to hear the usually carefree hedgehog talk like that. Of course she completely understood the feeling he was talking about.

"We dodge bullets at close range, we can kick missiles away, we pierce metal like it's nothing." Blaze begun herself. "And then with the emeralds we can get even stronger…"

Sonic stared at the ceiling as well, looking pensive. "You start to wonder what would happen if you didn't use your strength for the right reason or if you made a mistake, you could hurt somebody really badly."

Blaze sighed. "Having so much power makes it frightening for everyone, ourselves included."

"But there's something I realized after I met Tails for the first time," Sonic stopped staring at the ceiling to look at his friend "We save lives that couldn't have been saved, we give hope to those that need it and we're an example to follow for those that are lost and need to look up to somebody. If I hadn't been strong enough, I couldn't have protected and helped Tails, I couldn't have saved anybody from any threat."

Blaze's gaze didn't leave the ceiling as she started to ponder on the words of the hedgehog. "I have saved many lives that is true, although I feel like I have made my people more fearful than hopeful." She accidentally said out loud, loud enough for Sonic to hear.

"Blaze… I'm not sure of what exactly happened to you before we met but I can say for sure that Marine and Cream wouldn't have been as happy as they are if they hadn't met you."

"…Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is. I could even add in Tails considering you're the only one that manages to listen long enough to understand what he talks about."

This earned him a small chuckle from the cat. "What about us? Do we have mighty heroes we could look up to?"

The hedgehog paused, trying to think of an answer to that. "Nah, that'd be too easy. We only have ourselves and our friends to cheer us on."

"Those friends won't ever truly be able to understand us."

"True, doesn't mean they aren't helpful."

"That's not what I meant, it's just that it'd be better if it was someone that was like me."

"Someone you'd be able to share your super heroic worries with eh?" Finished the hedgehog.

Blaze stared a few more seconds at the ceiling before raising an eyebrow. She slowly went from her lying position to a sitting one, her gaze on the blue blur in front of her who wondered what made her get up.

"Isn't that… Isn't that what we just did? We just shared our thoughts on our similar situation, right?" Blaze asked, making the hedgehog tilt his head in confusion before understanding himself, his eyes widening in surprise.

"…Woah, you're right, I didn't even notice…" Said Sonic, genuinely shocked at how oblivious he had been.

"We discussed as if we were all alone yet we are right next to each other…"

"Pfft…" Sonic and Blaze both started to laugh, their laughter becoming louder by the second.

"I- I really shouldn't be laughing, it hurts so bad and yet- Hahaha!" Blaze exclaimed, trying to contain her laughter as it was painful for her to laugh because of the wound on her gut.

"Oh, oh man, I can't believe how dumb we are!" Sonic said.

Their amusement slowly stopped as Sonic wiped the tear he had on his eye and as Blaze laid back down.

The hedgehog rested his head on the wall and closed his eyes, even more tired than before. "Thanks Blaze, I mean it."

"I should be the one thanking you, I never expected to be able to have a conversation like that in my life."

The hedgehog nodded. "Same here, it felt… good to talk about this."

"Yes. Yes it did."

Sonic hadn't felt quite like this before. During a big part of his life, he had been looked up to and used constantly as a reference as "the fastest", "the strongest", "the hero". Even after meeting Blaze, somebody as strong and fast as him, he felt like they were too different from each other, with her being a fire bending princess from another dimension and having such a different personality than his. He had considered her as an equal for her physical abilities and hadn't expected her to have the same worries he had.

"I'm glad that we met Blaze, I really am." He said, making the cat feel flustered.

"Don't say such things Sonic, I'm embarrassed now… But, likewise."

They both stopped talking, enjoying the silence between each other. The hedgehog yawned, obviously tired with all of today's events.

"You should go back to your room Sonic, it'll be more comfortable." Blaze said, half-asleep already.

"I really should... but this drawer... It's actually really soft..."

"Is that so..."

Soon enough the duo quietly fell asleep, the fatigue and relief they felt forcing their eyes shut as a few of their shared worries felt now much lighter than before.

* * *

><p>"It's done."<p>

Computer screens placed everywhere with various angles of the Time Eater flashed their light on the face of two mad scientists, looking seemingly tired yet thrilled at the same time.

"He's complete, now we just need to do a few more tests and-."

"A few more tests? That's not needed anymore, is it Nega? He looks perfect as he is now!"

The darker version of the doctor Robotnik had decided to help his other self out with upgrading the time monster rather than hunt down emeralds and thanks to his help, their project had managed to end much faster than expected.

"With such a powerful tool in our hands, it'd be wiser for us to inspect once more, or even multiple times if needed, the newest equipment we've put on Time Eater. There's no telling what would happen to us if we make one wrong move with it. Firstly, we need to take those pests and their friends one by one with caution-"

"You want us to pick them out one by one when we could gather them and then wipe them out with a single attack?! We could wipe the world right here, right now if we wanted to. You have seen what this beast is capable of! It has a way to manipulate time and space without limits!"

"This is exactly why Ivo. How can we be completely sure that it won't backfire and destroy everything, including us? I wouldn't risk it even if there was a 0.01% chance of it happening."

Having the mad scientists argue so much over a case was a very rare instance. Usually, they took decisions very quickly, their ideas working together rather than against each other.

In this particular case, the good doctor was being too impatient for Nega. The white mustached man had not expected his counterpart to end up finding such a gem as the Time Eater. His abilities had been beyond anything he had ever seen, or even heard in legends. Stopping, accelerating and generally manipulating the time of specific areas, creating and destroying space with a single finger and of course the beast's natural, monstrous physical strength that surpassed more than a few of his own weapons.

Nega on the other hand wanted the plan to be absolutely perfect. The man had had enough of losing to the cursed cat and the cocky hedgehog. But with this monster, this amazing weapon, the chances that he would lose to the duo were close to none. After all, what could they or their precious emerald do against manipulating the very essence of reality?

With time and space in hand, they could become unstoppable conquerors.

Robotnik rubbed his chin before stopping, realizing that there was a way to have Sonic and all of his friends together. "…Perhaps you are right, perhaps we should wait until they are all in a single area before we strike. I know exactly how we are going to do this, Nega."

Nega raised an eyebrow, interested in hearing him tell him about his newest idea considering his counterpart seemed to agree with his idea now. "Do tell, Ivo."

"In two days, it will be that blue pest's birthday, I can already guess multiple locations of where they might hold it, our best bet would be…" Robotnik caressed his mustache pensively, thinking about all the places that Sonic would hold up something like a party for him. The hedgehog being surprisingly private about that kind of thing made it much easier for him to guess the location, it had to be somewhere far from the cameras but still accessible to everybody he wanted to come, it also had to be familiar enough for everyone, including his red friend that would never move away from the Master Emerald just for a party. "… Angel Island. That would be the best place."

"Interesting, any other places you have in mind? Having just one-"

"No need," Robotnik interrupted, his brain declining any other answer than that one was wrong. "I know Sonic well, he will do it there. We will, quite literally, crash his little party."

"Two days is enough for a few more tests. Aside from that, I have finished my own little project." Nega snapped his fingers and in the blink of an eye, Nega Hunter appeared before him with a small, round device in his hand with a button lying at the top of it. "The Molecular Shield is, once again, both complete and perfect." He handed the device to Robotnik who took it and examined it with great interest.

"Your so called barrier of ultimate defense. How many do we have?"

"Thirty, that is more than enough for both of us."

"Good, we'll need that much." Robotnik tossed the device back to its creator before turning around to leave. "We have a lot to do tomorrow, I'm off to get some sleep, you should do the same Nega."

The scientist left the room, leaving his counterpart alone with his creations and his thoughts.

Nega snickered, thinking about how he would finally be able to crush the cat and the hedgehog once and for all in only 48 hours. Mentioning Nega Hunter to follow him, the mad scientist left the room as well to head to his own chamber.

_'__Those pests have no idea of what is going to hit them.'_


	13. Windmills Of Our Minds

**Hello dear readers, before we get started on this chapter, I have a great announcement to make:**

**WitsWithMe (one of the reviewer of this story) asked me if he could start a sprite comic based on this fan fiction and I obviously said yes as it made me particularly happy that somebody would want to do something like that for my story! (I'm hoping posting where to find the webcomic doesn't break any rules as it IS related to the story.):**

**You can find it on smackjeeves dot com then just search for Power of Bonds.**

**His interpretation of my fanfiction might slightly differ from the original work although he told me that he was trying hard to keep the same spirit that comes from this story, so don't be scared and give that sprite comic a try! It's actually really good looking so far!**

**Thank you for the reviews, I treasure them.**

* * *

><p><em>Windmills Of Our Minds<em>

The sun was high in the sky, too high for being a normal morning the cat staring at the window thought.

Blaze had woken up only a few seconds ago because of how strong the sun was today, hadn't it been because of it she would still be asleep. She checked the digital clock near her bed and saw that it was already past noon, it was now 1:34pm.

The cat checked her own body, trying to see if her wound had gotten better and it definitely had. The Sol Emeralds having helped her healing process, the ugly wound had become only a smaller scar now and a large stain on her usual jacket.

She tried to get up and while she still felt a bit of a sting, it wasn't nearly as painful as yesterday. She stretched carefully until she noticed the hedgehog still sleeping on the drawer next to her, breathing softly and his hands used as a support to hold his head against something more comfortable than wood.

The hedgehog's eyelids slowly opened before he stared at the cat in front of her. He lazily gave her a wave with his hand to greet her.

"Mornin', you slept well?" He sleepily asked.

"Good morning Sonic, yes I did. I believe I should be the one asking that, you don't look very comfortable." Blaze pointed out, which made the hedgehog smile.

"Nah, I slept like a baby." He answered before sitting up, rubbing his eyes. "How's your wound?"

"It has nearly completely healed, it's just that I now have yet another scar on me thanks to it."

"Better being alive with another scar than dead." Sonic said.

"…I can't argue against that."

The hedgehog jumped off his "bed" before stretching himself. "Tried to use your flames yet?" He asked, wondering if the effect of Shadow's attack was still lasting.

"No, should I?"

"Go ahead."

The cat nodded. "Let's try with something small…" She said as she headed to the window of the room and put her hands forward to summon a small flame. A second later, an enormous burst of fire came from the cat's gloves, she quickly snuffed it out before looking at Sonic. "That's definitely not what I wanted to do." She said, looking very upset that she couldn't control her power now that her wound had healed.

"This might take longer to get fixed naturally…" The hedgehog rubbed his chin with his hand, trying to find a solution to this problem.

"Tell me more about the negative Chaos energy you spoke of last night. I do remember Tails talking about it without going into too much depth."

"I'm not very good at explaining science stuff but I'll try anyway. There's positive Chaos energy and there's negative Chaos energy, for one you need positive emotions and for the other you need negative emotions." The hedgehog started explaining. "What me and you do is feel positive stuff to turn into Super forms and usually, anyone or anything that wants to use the Chaos Emeralds tries to get the positive energy and not the negative one, mostly because it's uh, easier to control."

"Easier to control?"

"Both energies amplify what you're feeling at the moment but the negative energy does so even more, if you're feeling emotions like anger it gets really difficult to keep your mind clear."

"I understand. What about Shadow then?"

"He's kinda an exception to the rule, he can control both types to get different effects. I don't know how he does it, even Tails hasn't figured out how he does it yet. Anyway, Chaos Blast comes from negative vibes and aside from sending you flying it has some weird effects on your body."

"Did you also get hit by that?" Blaze asked, thinking that it was how the hedgehog had immediately said that the negative energy was the cause of her use of fire during her sleep.

He nodded, remembering that time very clearly. "Once. I felt dizzy for the rest of the day whenever I tried to run with my usual speed sometimes I ran at speeds I didn't want… It was really disorienting."

"Those are the « normal » effects that occur on a being from this dimension, Sonic."

"Yeah, that's the problem. We don't know how long it'll take for you or if you get any other side effects from it."

The words 'side effects' made the cat shudder lightly. "Perhaps Tails has the answer?"

"I'm going to give him a call to check."

The hedgehog went downstairs to take the phone and call his best friend, hoping that he would know what to do.

After a few minutes, he came back and shook his head at Blaze. "He doesn't have any more clues than we do."

"That is quite troubling…" Blaze said as she lightly bit on her thumb, deep in thought. Tails was usually the one that came with the answer to every question they could usually think of and if he didn't, then Marine would. Unfortunately this current case was unique as it probably had never happened before, it was also the worst possible situation she could be in.

The cat sat back down on the bed before putting both of her hands on her face, frustrated that she wouldn't be able to control her power for who knew how long. "It's as if I went back to the past…" She muttered.

"What do you mean?" Asked Sonic.

"It's just…" Blaze started but immediately stopped. She didn't want to talk about what had happened those years ago, she didn't want to share or to remember those horrible memories so she immediately changed the subject. "Never mind, how are your hands?"

Sonic understood that his friend didn't want to talk about her past. The hedgehog for once wanted to ask her more about it, he honestly wanted to help her out and he did feel a bit curious about knowing more about her. But now wasn't the right time, he thought. Perhaps later, when they solved her problem, he just hoped it would be before she would be force to go back to her own world…

If there was something the hedgehog could do right now, it was to distract her away from her worries.

"Eh, I've had worse. Ever tried drifting without your gloves on?"

"That sounds very painful."

"It is, I almost thought I'd lose my fingers the one time I did!" The hedgehog exclaimed which earned him an amused smile from the cat. "Oh and don't worry about the furniture of the room, it can be replaced easily."

"The furniture…?" Blaze asked, unsure of what she was talking about until she looked around her and saw that quite a few things in the room they were had blackened considerably. "Oh dear… Did I do that during my nightmare last night? I apologize deeply, Sonic."

"Hey I said that's fine. Besides, I needed to buy new ones, those were getting old." He said as he scratched the back of his ear with his hand, thinking of what they could do about the situation. Aside from Tails, the other expert in energy related problems would be Shadow and obviously it was out of the question to ask him for help.

There were other persons Sonic could ask, after all the hedgehog had lots of connections, the problem was that Blaze preferred to keep her identity secret toward humans as he understood when he had asked her what she wanted him to do when he had been asked about an unknown object falling from the sky near his house.

He needed someone he could make her trust while also having enough knowledge about the problem she had, an animal that had knowledge nearly equal to Tails or Shadow's in the field of Chaos energy…

An odd idea popped in Sonic's head, it wasn't often that he would ask the person he was thinking about complicated questions yet it might be the only person with the correct answer.

"I think I know someone who could help you but we're gonna need Tails' plane to reach him."

The cat shook her head in disapproval. "I highly doubt this is a good idea, we don't know how my… emotions would affect my current state." Blaze replied, obviously talking about how her fear of heights might get them in troubles. The last thing she wanted was to be the passenger of a burning air plane that's about to crash.

"It's not like we have a choice, Knuckles is the only one I can think of that can help us."

"Do we really have to go through the air then? Isn't there another way?"

"How else would you get to a floating island?"

"A… floating island?" Blaze inquired, unsure if she heard the hedgehog right.

"Angel Island, that's where Knuckles lives. It's flying because the Master Emerald is keeping the island up."

Blaze looked slightly surprised when she heard that there was a large piece of land floating thanks to the power of the Master Emerald. "You want me to go on a floating island by plane when I can't even control my fire output? You do know I don't feel very… comfortable in high places, don't you? Isn't there anyone else we could talk with?"

Sonic scratched the back of his head again, understanding full well that Blaze didn't like heights very much. "Tails doesn't know, I doubt any human I can get in touch with knows more than him so that leaves either Knuckles or Shadow. We're definitely not going to check with Shadow, not like he'd give us an answer anyway."

Blaze frowned, Sonic was right about how they should handle this. If Tails didn't know then nobody would aside from either the attacker or Knuckles. In truth, she didn't really know who he was although if Sonic said that he might knew something Tails didn't then he had to be special. "How will we go about the plane part? What if I end up panicking and cause a fire aboard it? Did you even think about that?"

"Trust me, we'll make it through."

"I'd just like to know how we will proceed-"

"Blaze," Sonic interrupted, giving her a reassuring smile "Getting too worried will only make it harder, so trust me."

"You don't understand Sonic, you don't understand that my power being uncontrollable can lead to disasters. Fire isn't something you can leave alone thinking it won't cause any damages, because it will."

"We'll manage, we went through a lot together, I'm sure that we'll find a way through this."

"This isn't as simple as fighting robots!" Blaze yelled, infuriated at the hedgehog's optimism. "This is not about beating an opponent or just running fast, this is-! Oh no…" The cat's eyes widened when she noticed that her hands had burst in fire without her consent. "This can't be happening… Not again!"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant by 'not again'. "Calm down. You're letting your negative emotions take control of you."

"How can I calm down knowing I could hurt somebody just by being near them?! That I could hurt you?!" The cat continued to shout when fire abruptly came out of her arms, burning everything on her sides. "No! Stop!" She panicked, desperately trying to control the flames running amok but to no avail.

Sonic had a stoic face and moved toward the cat who turned around with fear in her eyes.

"Don't approach me!" She shouted, the hedgehog didn't listen and continued to move forward..

Sonic held out his hand forward as if waiting for her to hold his hand, just like they had done before each time they had been separated. A sign of mutual trust and a sign of hope that they would meet again as well, though for this occasion it was about complete trust. "I know that everything will turn out fine, so trust me on this."

Blaze stared at the hand the hedgehog offered her and could not take it. If she did, she would burn his hand and perhaps even more.

"No… No Sonic, not this time. It won't, it never went well!" Blaze suddenly cried out before bursting out of the room at super speed, leaving an unwanted trail of fire behind her.

"Blaze wait!" The hedgehog called out but got no answer, the cat already far ahead. He hastily snuffed out the flames before deciding on what he should do next.

First of all, what did she mean by "It never went well"? As far as he knew, when he had been with her they never had any problems with her power which meant that… _'This is something that has happened when I wasn't there. Was it before we met?'_

The hedgehog started to think that she maybe needed a bit of time alone, except that the situation was not one where he could simply leave her alone. He knew he had to be with her if he wanted to calm her down.

The hedgehog chased after the cat's trail of fire and chose to watch her from afar once he'd find her before he'd decide whether to approach her or not.

* * *

><p>The cat had arrived in the middle of a city, her flames had stopped coming out of her feet a few minutes ago, relieving her of the worry that anyone would be able to see her power for now.<p>

'_Why did I run away?…'_ Blaze thought. She didn't know where she was at all and it didn't look like the hedgehog had followed her.

In her current situation, she was aware that being alone was the worst possible idea she could have gotten. What was she thinking? In a city even more so, and even though there weren't that many people in the street currently, to avoid being seen, the cat quickly jumped to the top of the nearest building, her mind still drowned in her own thoughts.

She blamed the hedgehog for not being able to understand her when in truth she knew that it wasn't his fault. Nobody could understand the real weight of the burden she had carried her whole life, especially during her youngest years after her flames had manifested.

The time where she didn't know how to control them at all, and today it was like she was back to that same unstable and dangerous state.

Yet the discussion Blaze and Sonic had last night had given her a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, the two of them would be able to fully comprehend each other, that in truth they were closer than she thought.

That maybe she wouldn't have to bear this burden alone anymore and that she would be able to count on him for more than just saving people. To count on her dearest friend to help her support it when she would be ready to share her true burden.

The real weight of her power along with the sins it had given her.

'_I'm such a fool.'_

"Such an ungrateful and selfish fool, he has done so much for me already…" The cat said quietly as she walked mindlessly on the edge of the roof until her ears picked up a sound that seemed to be directed at her.

On the street, a woman was pointing at the feline

"It's the cat… The one that was with Sonic!" The woman said, attracting the stares of more strangers upward, toward Blaze.

'_The situation is getting worse by the minute today…'_ Blaze thought before she quickly leapt away and jumped from roof to roof, feeling the slight sting of her still recovering wound. She heard the woman shout after her angrily and when she turned her head she saw that a mass of angry fans had already formed to chase after her.

Not that they would ever catch up with her but for safety purposes, Blaze continued to go through the roofs of the city as fast as she could, unsure of where she was going. All she knew is that she needed to get away from them as far as possible unless she wanted to risk hurting them by accident.

Only ten minutes later she found herself standing on a pink roof, finally alone and not being chased anymore.

She finally was completely alone, the only sound she could hear now was the wind blowing on her face as she gazed over the city in front of her.

"What now? What should I do? Where do I go?" Blaze asked to no one in particular, having for only answer the whistle of the wind.

The creak of a door made her turn around before she saw a familiar pink hedgehog holding a small basket full of clothes in her arms.

"Amy?" The cat asked, recognizing the hedgehog from before. _'Why did we have to meet now?! I don't want her to get hurt…' _Blaze couldn't run away, that would make it too suspicious, especially considering that Sonic had told her that the date hadn't gone well. _'I need to act natural or else…'_

The pink hedgehog jumped a little, slightly startled by the sudden sound of her name. She turned to the source of the sound only to see her most recent friend. "Blaze? What are you doing here?"

"I was running away from… Sonic's fans? I think. I ended up here without really knowing, what about you?"

"Oh, that doesn't sound fun. As for me I live in this building, so um, welcome I guess?" She said with a smile.

"…Thanks?" Answered Blaze, feeling somewhat uncomfortable as the cat could see that Amy looked tired even if she was smiling. The hedgehog had dark rings under her eyes as if she hadn't slept much. _'It really went badly between him and her?'_ She thought but didn't bother asking. "You want me to help you with that?" Blaze asked, pointing at the basket Amy held.

"I didn't know princess hung out laundry by themselves. Is that really fine?"

Blaze walked toward the hedgehog and picked lingerie directly from the basket. "I've been doing that by myself for a long time now so it's fine." _'I need something to do to get my mind off my current problem as well…' _She completed in her head.

The pink hedgehog eyed the red stain on Blaze's clothes before raising an eyebrow. "Are you alright? That doesn't look like ketchup…"

Blaze looked at her jacket before staring back at Amy, thinking that she might look just as a mess as the pink hedgehog was. "Don't worry about this, just something that happened yesterday. I'm fine now."

Amy hesitated a second before nodding. "Okay then." She simply said before getting to work herself, the cat following immediately.

They worked together silently and in a few minutes were already done, yet it had possibly been the hardest action Blaze had done today. The silence had been very helpful as the cat had managed to fully concentrate on keeping her power under control while hanging the laundry somewhat half absently.

Blaze was now sitting at the edge of the roof as Amy had gone back inside of her home to to bring them drinks, in the next moments the hedgehog came back with two cups of tea in each hand. She sat down next to the cat before handing one of the cup, which Blaze accepted with a "thank you".

"So, what's troubling you?" Amy suddenly asked, nearly making the cat let go of her drink by accident.

"…Am I that easy to figure out?" The cat answered, slightly disappointed in herself.

"The tears and the big blood stain on your clothes as well as the whole absently looking at the horizon thing gave it away." Amy said with a smile.

Blaze sighed. "What about you? You don't look so good either."

Amy laughed dryly. "Right, I'm not in a better shape than you are… Funny that we're both so down today and that you ended up on my roof."

"Indeed."

"Hey… Do you mind if I speak my heart out?"

"Is it about how the date went?" Blaze said knowingly.

"How'd you know?"

"It's the only event that happened between yesterday to you that I'm aware of so it's only a guess." The cat lied, feeling like she shouldn't tell Amy that Sonic had told her that it didn't go well. Amy nodded in answer. "Go ahead then."

"Alright, where to start…" Amy wondered, unsure of how she should begun her tale. "We met near Don Fachio's, we managed to get on the top and get our food and we talked, we had fun."

"Then what went wrong?"

Amy shook her head. "Nothing, and maybe thats the worst part… After that, just before we split up, I asked him if he loved me."

"What did he answer?" The cat asked, expecting her to say "No."

"He said "Of course"." The hedgehog said with melancholy in her voice.

"…Sorry, perhaps it is because I'm not well versed in the subject of love but I genuinely don't understand the problem." Blaze said, tilting her head in confusion.

"He said this because he thinks I'm not enough of an adult to understand what it means or that it would hurt me too much. He still sees me as a little girl…"

'_So that's what he meant by "what he didn't say"…' _Blaze thought, finally understanding the situation. "Do you really think so?"

"Huh?"

"I don't think he would say this to you specifically because he believes that you're a child. I feel like that's just how he would act no matter the person he was with."

"Ugh, that means he considers me to be like any of his other fans? This makes things even worse."

"T-that's, no I didn't mean that. It's just that he treats you like this because he cares about you a lot, I'm sure."

"He cares a lot about everybody." Amy countered, sighing.

"But… That's just the kind of person he is, isn't he?"

The cat's reply made the hedgehog silent for a moment. "…You sure do know a lot about him… You're right though." Amy stood up, this time her expression switching from sad to resolved. "This is who he is and he's the person I fell in love with, I guess I'll just have to keep trying again and again until he notices me. That's right, Amy Rose never gives up!"

"Um… that's the spirit?"

"Exactly! Thanks Blaze!" She turned her head toward the cat with a bright smile, having her spirits lifted up.

"I-I just did what a friend would do." The cat said, embarrassed by her own words. _'I can't believe she cheered up so quickly… I'm almost jealous.'_ Blaze thought before sighing.

"Right, your turn now!" Said the pink hedgehog as she sat back down next to her friend. "Tell me about your troubles."

"I don't think that's necessary-"

"I insist!"

"I'm fine, you don't need to-"

"No buts! You helped me, I'm going to help you."

"This isn't a simple situation I currently am Amy, so please, don't…" _'You cannot help me, nobody can.'_

"Hm…" Amy tapped her chin with her finger, deep in thoughts. "How about this: You tell me your problem and if I can't I won't bother you anymore about it, okay?"

"You're not giving me much of a choice." _'How bothersome…'_ "I have lost… control over something."

"Over what exactly?"

"I cannot tell you."

"Okay, anything else?"

"I… I turned away a friend that wanted to help me."

"About what you've lost control over right?"

"Yes. Are we done now?" The cat asked, slightly irritated.

"Why did you not accept the help from your friend?"

'_I do no want to hurt him…'_ Blaze thought but didn't immediately answer, leaving both of them in silence as Amy patiently waited for the cat to continue. "He could get hurt." _'Because of me.'_

"So, because you're afraid it might hurt him, you prefer to push him away? Don't you think that might hurt him more?"

"There's no way you could understand…" Blaze muttered, remembering what had happened that fateful day, ten years ago.

'**The orphanage has caught on fire! Quick bring water!'**

"There's just…"

'**Somebody do something, the fire is only getting stronger!'**

"…no way…"

'**IT'S CRUMBLING DOWN AND SOME OF THE CHILDREN ARE STILL INSIDE!'**

"…that it could be more painful than being burnt…"

'**You are the one that caused this, are you not? My daughter… No, that is not what you are anymore. You are nothing else than a demon.'**

Though Amy heard Blaze's small voice, she had absolutely no idea of what she was talking about. Burnt? What did she mean by that?

"Wait, Blaze, could it be that you're…" Amy started.

In an instant, the cat's eyes widened as she snapped back to reality and feared the worst. _'Darn it, I said too much!' _Her mind raced trying to think of a way stop Amy from understanding. _'What should I do?!' _If Amy had truly understood, then once she finishes her sentence, Blaze would be in a lot of troubles. The pink hedgehog would probably get scared from her, possibly run to Sonic and ask him to get rid of her and if he refused, she'll make it public so that she wouldn't be able to live anywh-

"…A terrible cook?"

The unstoppable train of thoughts came to an abrupt crash in Blaze's mind as she stared in disbelief at Amy, her mouth half open.

An entire minute passed before the cat managed to speak again. "…What?"

"You lost control over something you cooked, oil spilled and it gave your friend that was standing nearby a bad burn, am I right?"

'_What…'_

"And that's why you're afraid of cooking again for your friend!"

"…Why yes, how did you find out?" Blaze answered, not able to believe that Amy had somehow completely misunderstood the situation, the cat decided that playing along would be for the best.

"I knew it!" The pink hedgehog exclaimed happily, a victorious smile on her face. "I remember it happening to Cream once, she had wanted to show off her cooking skills to Tails and accidentally spilled oil on him, she was so mad at herself that she cried two days straight! The poor thing wouldn't stop until Tails had made it clear that he was fine." Amy giggled, remembering how worried the little bunny had been. "After showing her that even he made mistakes when he worked on his own inventions, Cream started to cook again and everything went fine after this! So, Blaze…"

"Y-yes?" The cat answered, startled by having her name called out when she was still in her own thoughts, still shocked Amy was going on about something completely different than what the real problem was.

"I'm going to teach you how to cook! How about we meet at 6pm today at Central City's shopping district to get some supplies first? By train it's not very far from here."

"I doubt it'd be a good idea, I don't want to be chased by Sonic's fans again."

"Oh, right… A place where we could go shopping without too many people bothering you…" Amy rested a finger under her chin, trying to find where such a place could exist. "Well there is that one place but I really don't like it…"

"T-there's no need to go then, I wouldn't want to trouble you-"

"Oh no no, you don't bother me at all Blaze, I think it'll be very fun! Besides, we have to, I think you need a new set of clothes as well." Amy said, which made the cat take a clear look at her jacket.

Aside from the large blood stain in the middle of it, the parts around her arms and shoulders were torn slightly thanks to the bullet, the fur on her wrists was dirty and her gloves were in no better condition. As for her leggings, they were only dirtied and nothing more.

"Let's go inside of my apartment to wash that stain first." Amy said as she got up, dusting herself off before heading to the stairs.

Blaze hesitated a moment before moving. They entered the apartment as the hedgehog mentioned her to follow her.

The cat looked at her surrounding and saw that the pink color was everywhere, from walls to furniture, everything was colored of different shades of pink. The other recurring theme seemed to be Blaze's blue friend, as there were multiple different photos of him set on the walls.

'_Is it really alright for me to see this?…' _Blaze thought, feeling uncomfortable but didn't dare share her thoughts with the pink hedgehog.

"I'm going to bring you new clothes, just set yours there and I'll wash them right after." Amy said, leaving the cat alone as she went into her own room to pick up the clothes.

'_I still have the Sol Emeralds inside of my jacket, I can't do that! If she sees them then she'll start asking questions and then-!' _Blaze thought, her breathing slowly accelerating as she could feel heat coming from her hands as well. _'I'm panicking again! I can't let my emotions overcome me, calm down…' _

Blaze took a deep breath, concentrating on finding a solution. She could get out of here immediately, but where could she go? To Rouge's club? _'No, if Shadow is there again then… I don't want to trouble Tails or Cream either and as for Sonic…' _

The pink hedgehog came back carrying a new set of clothes in her hands. "There we go. Oh, you didn't take your clothes off yet? If you're embarrassed about it you can change in my room, I won't mind."

"Your kindness is very appreciated Amy but I truly do not want to be a bother to you."

"What are you saying? I'm happy to be able to help a friend!"

'_This could be an opportunity for me to escape.' _"…I'll go ahead then."

Blaze entered the hedgehog's bedroom, unsure of how to react once she saw that there was at least ten times more photos of Sonic in there, to the point where you couldn't even see some walls entirely.

She decided to ignore it for now and focus on her current situation. There was a window at the other side of the room, if she was sneaky enough she could quickly escape without making a sound.

On the other side of the room, Amy was standing in front of the door, worried for her friend. The pink hedgehog was far from being stupid and while she thought that Blaze had troubles cooking, she was aware that something else bothered the cat and that it was related to something that burns.

'_Did she have an accident with fire in the past? Maybe it's a phobia? But then why would she even try to cook? …Ah, she's trying to fight that phobia! I think?' _Amy nodded, thinking that her theory might be right, the hedgehog decided that she would help the cat. _'I wonder what she meant when she said that there's no way I could understand…'_

"…It's not that simple to understand each other, is it?" Amy asked out loud, still facing the door.

Blaze had started sneaking toward the window when her ears caught the hedgehog's words which made her freeze in her tracks. "…What do you mean?"

"Ah, um, it's just that even if we don't understand someone, it doesn't mean we can't help them out. Since it can be complicated to-"

"You will never be able to truly help someone you cannot understand fully." The cat coldly cut, feeling like she repeated the same words she had said to Sonic last night. She continued to move slowly toward the window, not caring anymore about the pink hedgehog's words.

"Then, are you fine with distancing yourself from your friends just because they don't understand you? If you go too far, you might never be able to see them again…"

This time, Blaze froze for good.

"I ran away from Sonic because he couldn't understand my feelings." Continued the pink hedgehog. "I regret doing that now, I'm afraid… I'm afraid that that the bond I have with him will break if I don't see him again while being my usual happy self."

"Your 'usual happy self'? Does it mean that you're lying about yourself to Sonic?"

"…Yes and no, it's not something I can explain with words. But… don't you think it's selfish to want somebody to understand your feelings completely? I feel like I'm just being a bother to him…"

'_A bother…' _

"So it's fine if he doesn't understand me, I don't want him to leave me. I'm fine if he's just by my side…"

Blaze stopped breathing as the thought of Sonic leaving her appeared in her mind. The cat's heart suddenly stung and the flames that threatened to come out of her body whenever she felt emotions today had become silent. She actually felt cold.

She didn't want that.

"I need to see him again soon, otherwise… Ah I'm sorry Blaze I shouldn't be bothering you with that." Amy finished, feeling like she had annoyed her friend more than anything else. "Though for you, maybe the problem might not just be only about understanding? It could be something else." _'Well if it's a phobia of some sort, I'm not sure if comprehension is the only problem… Maybe communication?'_

'_Something else?… Could it be? Sonic has always understood me more than anyone so perhaps…' _The cat thought.

Blaze walked back to the door of the bedroom and opened it, surprising the pink hedgehog that thought she would come out without her dirty clothes on yet she still had everything on her.

"I have to go."

"Wait, what about your clothes?"

"I thank you Amy for your offer and your words although I have to decline as of right now, I have something more important to do than change clothes."

Amy smiled as she understood what the cat wanted to do. "You're going to see your friend right?"

"…Yes."

The hedgehog's smile only got brighter. "Okay, let's meet near Club Rouge at 6pm, I know a place not far from it where we could shop quite well actually." _'That reminds me, I remember overhearing her talking about going there with Cream the other day but I was too happy about getting a date with Sonic to care about it, I wonder how it went…'_

Blaze nodded, thinking that it would be a way to thank Amy for making her realize that running away was not the right thing to do, she had to face the problem.

And more importantly, she had to face Sonic, because deep down she knew he would listen to her, that he was the person that could understand her the best and the person she trusted the most.

Just before Blaze opened the door, she turned back to the hedgehog. "You… are a very strong girl, Amy." She said before leaving.

Amy watched as the cat went out. "Strong? Right… I wish I was half as brave as you are right now. Her friend is lucky to have somebody like her…" She muttered to herself, staring absentmindedly at a picture of her blue unrequited love.

"What do you think of me, I wonder…"

* * *

><p>Sonic was worried about his friend and he didn't understand why.<p>

He wasn't worried about her wound as it had healed up and she was tougher than most of the strong people he personally knew of.

He wasn't worried about her being caught by the fury of his fans because he knew she could easily escape.

He wasn't worried either about her getting attacked by Eggman, because he knew she could handle the doctor as well as he did.

Nor was he worried about her burning everything around her because even if her powers weren't under her total control today, his trust toward her remained unwavering, she would never hurt innocents.

The current situation was something Blaze had already dealt with in the past, which meant she could deal with it again, he knew she would end up just fine.

So what was the hedgehog so concerned about? He didn't know.

'_What do you mean I can't understand you?'_

Or perhaps he knew although he wasn't quite aware of it yet. Sonic thought harder about what exactly was irking him.

It wasn't that Blaze was not able to take care of herself, far from it as the cat could deal with anything that came her way.

The problem was that she wanted to deal with everything by herself.

**Alone.**

The blue blur couldn't stand that, yet…

'_That's… not the only thing right? There's something else that's bothering me… Even though we talked so much last night…'_

Sonic had been quietly following the cat ever since she left his house and at stopped once he arrived near the building where Amy lived, not daring to take a step closer to it.

He was a little startled when he saw that Amy had made contact with Blaze before they had a discussion, Sonic couldn't hear the words but judging by the look on their faces, it didn't seem like they got into an argument.

Then, he saw the cat and the pink hedgehog head for the stairs and a few minutes later, he saw Blaze come back outside alone. She swiftly jumped away from the building she was on, moving forward quickly.

"Wait, she's going in the direction of my house." The hedgehog said aloud before following the cat. "I wonder what she did with Amy… Ah, I'm going to lose sight of her."

Sonic immediately put a tail on the cat's track and while his body had no trouble following Blaze, his mind was still unsure of what to say to her once they would meet.

'_I guess"Trust me, everything will be fine" is not the right thing to say huh?' _He thought.

This sentence was one he had used often with many people, even for Blaze when they had met on previous adventures. A sentence he always spoke from his heart and which always made everyone around him very confident for whatever they were about to face.

This time was different however and Sonic was still trying to figure out why.

The hedgehog picked up the pace to catch up with the cat as they neared his house, thinking that this time, he would find the right words to calm her down.

* * *

><p>The cat had finally arrived in front of the blue blur's house, she stopped her run as she got right to the front door.<p>

Blaze's hand reached for the door knob but paused midway.

'…_What am I expecting? The chances that he's inside are low, knowing him he might be running somewhere far by now.' _The cat thought, her eyes locked on the door knob, her hand trembling slightly in frustration.

She suddenly clenched her hand into a fist, making the hand stop shaking. _'But for the slight chance that he might be in there…'_ With a nod, Blaze reached for the door knob and turned it.

"Hey."

The voice that came from behind her startled the cat who turned around in surprise, accidentally unleashing a large wave on fire at the same time at the source of the voice which was no one else than the friend she had been seeking.

"No!" Blaze shouted, afraid that she had just burnt her friend.

The cat felt a light pressure on her shoulder, she turned around again to see Sonic grinning. "What're ya so scared for? I faced worst fire than that ya know?"

A sigh of relief left Blaze's lips as she turned around, giving the hedgehog a harsh look. "Refrain from doing this ever again when I'm unstable like today. And please, don't even think about joking on the current-"

"I know." Sonic interrupted, still smiling although his expression had gotten more serious than before. "I'm sorry."

"…It's fine, I should be the one apologizing, not you. You've only tried to help me."

"Right, I wasn't very successful at doing that." The hedgehog said, he extinguished the fire the cat had spread in front of his house at supersonic speed before coming back to sit down in front of the door.

Blaze sat next to the hedgehog, leaning her back on the wall. "You've done more than you should ever have."

Sonic looked at the cat who was staring at the burnt grass in front of her, her eyes nearly empty of emotions.

Though it was hard to see, Sonic could feel the fear they had talked about before.

To fear yourself.

The hedgehog had also seen his eyes like that once when he had looked in his reflection after transforming into a werehog when Dark Gaia had been unleashed.

"To be honest, I would've done the same thing if I were you." Said the hedgehog out loud, making the cat turn her head to face her friend. "Isolate myself to avoid hurting people, I mean."

"It's the best solution for everyone."

"Except for us, it's the worst." Sonic said, his gaze stumbling upon the burnt ground.

Blaze's fist tightened, aware that he was right. "In this situation, there's no other option."

"…Probably. That is, if you or I were alone, but we're not. We're in this together Blaze, because we're the only ones that people look up to and the only ones that can really understand each other." The hedgehog stood up and stretched. "Since you came back to my house, that means you figured it out too right? That 'understanding' and 'trust' are not the problems."

The cat stayed silent for a long moment before answering. "…I just… I just don't want to hurt anyone, you included."

"You know you can't hurt me." Sonic stated.

"How are your hands, Sonic?" Blaze answered, as if to say 'I've already hurt you.'

"Never been better." He said with a smirk. "How many times do I have to say that it's not your fault to make you stop blaming yourself about that small accident? I did say I had worse too."

The cat held her head low, still ashamed by what she had done. "Then what is it? What is the problem? If it's not understanding or trust, the only problem is myself then. I am the problem as I am unstable, your burnt hands are proof."

"No, that's not it. This is your fear speaking, that is not the problem. You're not a problem." Said Sonic as he shook his head, not approving of the cat's words. "You're very far from being a problem Blaze."

"I shall repeat myself then: what is **'it'**?"

There was a long silence between the two animals as they continued to keep their gaze on the horizon.

"I don't know. That's why…" Sonic said, finally breaking the silence. The hedgehog held his hand toward his friend again. "Let's figure that out together, alright partner?" His words made the cat notice Sonic's hand from the corner of her eye. "And ya know, it's kinda rude to ignore a handshake, some fans would kill to be able to touch one of my fingers!"

She stared at Sonic's hand before raising her own, slowly. The cat hesitated, stopping before she reached him as the impatient hedgehog forcefully caught her hand. "Ah!"

Sonic's smile grew wider as he pulled the cat up to make her stand. "See? You don't have to be afraid for me."

"You're too reckless, yet you're… not wrong. " Blaze sighed, realizing that she might have simply been foolish today. "Even if I wanted you, to hurt you is difficult. And you… You are strong. For some reason, I never truly realized until now. I was aware, yet…"

'_We've faced worst hardships than a burnt hand, so why… I get it now.'_

"I figured it out, what the problem was."

"Yes, I think I did too, it's…"

"Acknowledgement." The cat and the hedgehog both said at the same time, which made both let out a chuckle.

"How ironical, to think we've been aware all this time yet still never considered each other as truly even after we had that discussion last night up until now."

"Could be that we're just dumb, heh." Sonic joked. "We're just two big idiots, aren't we?"

Blaze shook her head to say no. "…If for example, someone that was considered the last person on the planet met another person one day after wandering alone for years, wouldn't he think that it is simply an illusion his mind created?"

"That's an extreme example, Blaze."

"I believe extreme is necessary for… Us. I'm not sure for you as you've always had your friends, but for me…"

Sonic reflected on her words. That was true, he always had his friends unlike Blaze and yet he always had had a strange feeling of loneliness that should have never been there.

He always kept a minimum distance from his close friends, even from Tails, to make sure he could protect them.

As for the world that he protected, for every citizen that saw him as their guardian angel, he had to be far away not only to protect them but to make sure they would never see his weaknesses and make them worry.

Because what good would be a hero if he couldn't constantly give hope and protect the world from danger?

"You're right, for us. I'm in the same case as you in a way, even with my friends, I can't be too close to them so that they can be safe, if I could I'd never have them come with me whenever I have to fight. I don't want them to worry about me either…" The hedgehog said with a sigh. "I doubt it's as bad as your case, being all alone… I don't think I could handle it."

"No, my situation was just as bad as yours. There's no worst case, it's just different, the ending result is the same."

"Being a hero really sucks huh?" Sonic said with a laugh.

"It's… it's not that bad." Blaze muttered as Sonic gave her a grin in answer. "U-um, maybe now you could release my hand?" She asked, embarrassed to only have noticed it now.

"Eh?" The hedgehog as well only noticed now that he had been gripping the cat's hand the entire time. "Oh, uh, sorry." The hedgehog said as he immediately released her as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"I-it's fine." The cat said as she had turned away from Sonic, her face slightly flustered. "We-we should get going now. Let's go to where your… Knuckles friend is."

"Yeah, let's take care of this problem, together."

Understanding, trust, awareness, acknowledgement and realization.

The two powerful animals, the two defenders of their respective dimensions had now fully realized that they were not only partners in strength and friends. They both had a strong heart and an even stronger bond between them.

Blaze had grown thanks to Sonic's actions during their past adventures and was now standing on equal footing with him.

They finally realized that they are at the same eye level.

They are companions in heart.

And oh, how warm their loner hearts were right now.


	14. Recovery Starts

**Before we get started on this chapter, I'd like to thank the following people:**

**Lord Kelvin, Metal1784, Child at Heart, Dr Namgge and Captain Hwawrang for your sincere reviews, they have and are really helping me out. I'm grateful for your help, you guys are awesome!**

**Thank you Elkpelt for proofreading this chapter, you're a great help!**

* * *

><p><em>Recovery Starts<em>

The Tornado, Tails' favorite creation was standing in all of its glory in front of Sonic who whistled, impressed with the new upgrades his little brother had given it.

The situation being special, Tails also had to take special countermeasures to avoid any incident that may cost the trio their lives and Blaze was completely aware that she was the one that could cause said incident.

When she saw the new large cannons with big reserve tanks of water stuck on them that the fox had attached to the main body of his aircraft, she couldn't help but feel anxious about them. They had been designed for her, after all.

The boy genius cleared his throat, catching the attention of his two friends. "You've arrived right on time guys! I just finished modifying the latest version of the Tornado. Behold, the W-Tornado!"

"W-Tornado?" Sonic asked, wondering what it was supposed to mean.

"It stands for water, Sonic." Tails said before continuing his explanations.

Before Sonic and Blaze had come to his house and after receiving the phone call of the hedgehog and the quick explanation about the feline's sudden lack of control over fire, Tails wondered what he would be able to do to be able to help the cat he had recently become real friends with.

No way was he going to leave in troubles someone that actually listened to his long monologues on his machines.

First of all, he thought of a way to suppress her fire if it happened to spread somewhere. The obvious answer he found was to use water to deal with it and to this end, he quickly worked on a new inventions: water cannons that could throw water fast and strong enough to get immediately rid of any fire that would start.

It took him a while to create them, then he figured a miniature version would be more practical but before he could set himself to work, guests had arrived at his house hidden in the blizzard.

The fox got his head out of his inventions to welcome Blaze and Sonic and after sitting down on the couch, with hot drinks in hand, the blue hedgehog explained his plan to Tails.

In theory, it was simple: Get in the plane, take Blaze to Angel Island and talk with Knuckles to find a solution.

In practice, they needed to have the cat be able to control herself for a twenty five minutes flight, otherwise they'll get burnt to a crisp.

Tails didn't really know about the feline's fear of heights but was aware that the cat didn't particularly like being in his plane as he understood from their last flight, and so knew that the task would require more attention to ensure a smooth trip.

With his quick thinking, he found a rather simple solution to his problem: Attach his newest invention on his aircraft and add an automatic function to it. If the temperature reaches a certain point, they'll automatically shoot water where the source of the temperature is supposed to be.

After hearing how the fox would deal with their problem, Blaze felt relief that they had a solution but worried that she would have to fly with the threat of being drenched in water at high altitudes.

"Is this really safe?" She asked, starting to think twice about getting into the backseat of the plane.

"You mean aside from catching a cold?" The blue hedgehog said with a smirk, making Tails smile.

"Yep, perfectly safe! Just like Sonic said, the worst you could get is a cold if you stay wet for too long but don't worry, I've got towels ready too in case the cannons activate." The fox said, showing the small stack of towels hidden beneath the second seat. "I've also modified the seatbelt so that you won't be sent out of your seat either so there shouldn't be any problems."

"Sent out of…" Blaze started but was immediately cut by Sonic who jumped into the backseat.

"Alright, no problems means we should get this over with as fast as possible. C'mon Blaze, your turn now." He said as he looked expectantly at the cat.

"Um Sonic, for once wouldn't it be a better idea that you stand on the wing like you do sometimes?" Tails asked, which made Sonic tilt his head in interrogation.

"Why?"

"I mean, if anything were to happen and you were sitting with Blaze then…"

Blaze's anxiety from before came back slowly, she felt that her stomach was twisting, aware that as of now it was dangerous for anyone to be next to her for too long.

"Tails, buddy, we're in the middle of Holoska. No way am I going to wing walk when there's a blizzard outside. Besides, how do I get warmed up if Blaze's not there, hm?"

The cat's feelings dissipated as quickly as they came, surprised by the hedgehog's strange answer. It was an answer that she understood though, it wasn't just a joke coming from the blur, it was him telling her that it was his own choice and that he also trusted her enough to think that she wouldn't end up causing any disasters. "Since when did I become your personal heater, Sonic?" She answered.

"No idea what you're talking about Blaze, aren't you just doing a friend a favor?"

An amused smile spread on the cat's lips as she jumped on her seat before sitting in front of the hedgehog. "…As if."

The answer made Sonic smile widely. "Okay then, we're good to go! Let's hurry Tails."

Said fox had been watching the scene that had just happened in front of him, thinking that it was a… bizarre one to say the least. Sonic wasn't a person that he had seen appreciate close contact with most people, especially girls.

The hedgehog had a good point about the blizzard though, even if the hedgehog had dared to brave similar weathers in the past, it wasn't every time that he did it.

He stopped thinking so hard about it and shrugged it off before he grabbed his aviator scarf and googles, thinking that the hedgehog was just worried about Blaze and didn't want to leave her alone.

That or Sonic was very serious about having his own personal heater during flights. "Maybe I should install one or two on the Tornado…" Tails muttered, actually wondering if it would be better for both him and his future passengers.

He hopped onto the driver seat and started the engines before taking off in direction of the flying island.

* * *

><p>Five minutes later, Blaze was already shifting uncomfortably in her seat, trying to stop her fear of height from activating her power.<p>

"How you holding up Blaze?" Sonic questioned, becoming worried for his friend.

"Try to guess." the cat answered, she was definitely uneasy.

The hedgehog wondered how he could make his friend feel better for the trip as he noticed the feline was starting to get warmer by the second, so he went with the first thing that came in his mind: He put an arm around her waist just like he did last time to hold her closer to him.

"W-what are you-?!" Blurted out the surprised cat.

"Well that worked last time right?"

"…T-that's-"

"No good? Is it like a trick that only works once? Oh I know then!"

The hedgehog had the bright idea of wrapping his other arm around the flustered feline.

"H-hey!"

"Aha, you're cooling down, it worked!"

"It… It did?"

Sonic's tactic had been a complete success, the cat's erratic power had calmed down, the air around him feeling colder than before was the proof.

Even though they were still going higher and higher in the sky, Blaze was feeling strange… She felt safe when she shouldn't be.

"Great, embarrassing me to death seems to be what keeps me in control." The cat groaned, her face red like a tomato.

Sonic let out a chuckle, unaware of the blush spreading on Blaze's face. "C'mon it's not that bad, at least we're not gonna end up having our faces shot with those scary looking water cannon." He honestly said, although he also enjoyed teasing his partner whenever he could.

"Maybe I should let out some fire on purpose to make up for the embarrassment you've caused me to feel? I'm sure those cannons will appreciate being able to do their jobs properly, don't you think so?" The feline menaced, clearly not happy with the situation.

This made the hedgehog think twice about teasing the fiery feline some more. "…W-why don't you try to sleep a little Blaze, better than watching the cannons or uh, the clouds, right?"

"…I'd rather avoid having another nightmare." The tone Blaze had was serious. The cat was feeling tired for some reason even though she had slept much more than usual today.

The reasons she could think of were numerous: the fact that she had negative chaos energy inside of her right now, her nightmare, being reminded of her past and today's overall emotional quota having been quite high for the poor cat, it definitely had been a tiring day.

The worst part is that it was far from being over.

"So, Sonic, I'd prefer if you kept me awake."

"You know you might regret asking this, yeah?"

"Your incessant bickering about chili dogs is a thousand times preferable to a nightmare."

"Gee Blaze, you sure do know how to flatter me. Actually, I heard they're planning to make a new kind of chili dog and…"

When the hedgehog started talking about his passion, there was no stopping him. Blaze and Sonic talked about the hedgehog's favorite kind of food for a good part of the flight.

The cat's eyelids started to feel heavier by the minute, Sonic's words began to sound like a lullaby as she slowly drifted to sleep in the unaware hedgehog's arms who continued to talk alone.

* * *

><p>"…Then I said: « Wow Chef, how in the world did you think of a sea urchin based chili dog? I've never even dreamt of that kind of taste before! You're brilliant, man! » I thought it was really amazing y'know?" Sonic's speech had been going on non stop during the entirety of the flight, he stopped when he noticed that they had finally reached their destination. "Oh look Blaze, we're there!"<p>

The rough landing was what woke up the cat from her slumber, her eyes shot open, taking her surrounding in as she remembered where she was.

It took her a minute to understand she'd fallen asleep thanks to Sonic's soporific monologue.

It took her an additional thirty seconds to realize she was still held by him, even if his grip was lessening since they had landed.

"So Blaze, whaddya think?" The hedgehog asked with high expectations.

"About what?" The cat replied, wondering if she should have tried harder at staying awake, understanding that the hedgehog had thankfully not noticed she had dozed off.

In his arms.

Even though she felt like she could die a hundred times out of embarrassment right now, for some reason, the cat felt like this had possibly been the best sleep she ever had.

She also had an odd dream which had consisted of Sonic running a kingdom made entirely out of different varieties of chili dogs, chili dog people and her being invited by King Sonic to a dinner which consisted of… chili dogs.

In a way, Blaze felt like she had been placed in the front seat of a cannibalism show, although she still had eaten the food served to her.

Setting the dream and the embarrassment aside, she was feeling particularly good.

'… _Could it be that hedgehogs are naturally good as pillows? Is that why I slept so well?'_ Blaze started to wonder, her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the blue blur.

"About what I just said! That new version of chili dogs, the one I said we should try out!"

"Oh, I'm sure it's… Incredibly tasty."

Truthfully, Blaze had absolutely no idea exactly what he was talking about but to avoid him nagging her more, she just played along.

"Yeah! Man, you're my partner alright, aside from you no one else wants to try it out, not even Tails! Just the name sounds tasty, I don't get why they wouldn't want to give it a try."

"…Neither do I, Sonic, neither do I."

"Right?"

The duo left the plane and waited for Tails to get down before they started walking with Sonic leading them.

"I'm glad we've finally arrived on solid…" The feline started until she saw that the clouds were close to her, way too close. Her eyes caught sight of the end of said land as she finished her sentence, understanding that they truly were on a floating island. "…ground"

"You said somethin' Blaze?" Her blue companion inquired.

"…Never mind me."

The cat observed everything around her, from the dense looking forest on one side, to the cliff of the floating island she was on, she couldn't help but be amazed that such a place even existed.

Although she had already walked high in the sky when they had to explore Sky Babylon during her last adventure with Sonic, Tails and Marine, the place had just been ruins upon ruins and nothing else, while here, there seemed to be so much life even though it felt impossible. Yet the forest not far from her was proof that the impossible had become possible.

"Fascinating…" muttered the feline, in awe at the existence of the flying island, though she still felt uneasy whenever her eyes caught the dangerous end of the land.

It seemed like the fox and the hedgehog were used to this kind of scenery as this earned no special reaction for them, they were actually looking forward to meeting with Knuckles again.

"I hope that knucklehead's still as good as ever, been a while since we last saw him."

"I hope so too, it's too bad he doesn't come visit us when there aren't troubles."

Sonic nodded, smirking. "No troubles, no Knuckles, or is it the other way around?"

"Come on Sonic, he doesn't bring us troubles!… Well, maybe a little." The fox joked.

"Since when did you become so mean, Tails?" Sonic said laughing.

"Hey, you're the one that started it."

The feline was starting to wonder if they were joking or being serious. "I might not know this Knuckles fellow but I only hope that he won't try to fight me for a reason or another." She said, which made Sonic face her with an awkward smile.

"I promise you, even if he's a knucklehead, he's not a bad one. I really doubt he'll pick a fight with you for no reason."

"You sure had your share of troubles here Blaze but don't worry, I can confirm Knuckles won't try anything more harmful than a prank to a friend of ours." The fox concluded, reassuring the cat.

"Yeah! And uh, sorry about Amy… and Rouge… and Shadow." The blue blur gave her an apologetic smile.

"There's no reason for you to apologize Sonic, none of that was your fault, especially in Rouge and Shadow's cases."

"Well at least for Amy-"

"We're here!" Interrupted Tails as they had arrived in front of what looked like an ancient shrine.

A red echidna was standing there, his eyes closed and his arms crossed. Behind him was standing a magnificent and incredibly huge jewel that had a striking resemblance to the green Chaos Emerald.

* * *

><p>The guardian of the Master Emerald heard unfamiliar sounds coming into his surroundings, the usual peaceful place now disturbed by the echo of feet softly stepping on the grass.<p>

His eyes shot open as they immediately searched for the source of the sound, a frown apparent on the echidna's face as he was aware that danger might be near.

Once he found the origin of the noise, his muscles relaxed when he saw his friends approaching him.

With his friends, there was a person he didn't know but he was sure it wasn't someone bad since the cat was with both the hedgehog and the fox.

"Sonic, Tails, it's been a while. What's up?" Greeted the echidna with a friendly smile.

The blue hedgehog returned the smile and waved his hand at him. "Hey, Knucklehead!"

"Hi Knuckles! We've been doing well, what about you?" Tails said, happy to see his friend again.

"Same old, same old. So, who's this new- Uh… Is she alright?" Knuckles asked after noticing the clothes the cat was wearing.

She had decided to not use Tails' washing machine while she and Sonic were at his house as she felt that it would be a waste of precious time, the cat just wanted to be done as soon as possible with their current problem.

So the cat was indeed still wearing the slightly torn clothes with the blood stains on it.

"Actually…" began the hedgehog as he started to tell Knuckles about the encounter with Shadow, how and why it had affected Blaze so strongly. "And that's why we're here."

With Blaze's authorization, the hedgehog hadn't spared any details to Knuckles, including telling about the feline's Sol Emeralds as well as her control over fire. If they wanted her to get better, they had to tell everything to him in hope that he would have a solution.

"I see, this sounds like a complicated situation." The echidna said as he observed the cat. "There's only one thing I can think about that might work but…"

"But?" Tails inquired.

"Well, I can't guarantee that anything will work. Or that it won't backfire since your friend has a different energy than Chaos inside of her. I'm actually surprised she's standing there, looking fine…"

"What do ya mean, Knuckles?" Sonic said.

"Based on what you told me about the fight with Shadow, seems like your own set of emeralds protected you, or more like, went against Chaos energy based attacks." Knuckles explained. "They destroyed each other. You understand what I'm saying right?"

The fox gulped, feeling a twist forming in his stomach. "…I thought it was because it was negative Chaos energy that it had happened. The Sol Emeralds and the Chaos Emeralds are supposed to attract each other, not repel or annihilate each other…"

The red echidna scratched the back of his head. "Maybe they do attract each other, but maybe it's direct contact between the raw energies that causes that. I could be wrong too, I don't know enough about it."

"Should we just wait for it to go away then?" The blue hedgehog wondered.

The cat shook her head. "No. With the threat of our enemies still lurking, I cannot allow myself to be unable to fight. We have to treat this as quickly as possible."

"We shouldn't be hasty, if you give me some time I can probably make a solution-" Started the fox but was quickly interrupted but Blaze.

"For all we know, we could get attacked in the next hour. Knuckles, if you were able to cure me, I would be in your debt."

The echidna nodded. "I can purge the negative energy inside of you using the Master Emerald's positive energy, but as I said, I'm not sure if it'll work or if it won't backfire. You sure you still wanna risk it?"

"Blaze, wait." The blue blur began.

"Sonic, this is my decision."

"Listen, we can wait for it to go away, I can protect everybody and-"

"We don't even know if it will heal with time! And I'm not worried about being protected Sonic, I'm worried that I might cause more troubles if I try to defend myself!" Blaze answered rather aggressively before immediately calming down, aware that she might spread fire if she continued. "So please, believe in my choice."

For once, Sonic wasn't sure on how to answer to this. He felt conflicted inside of him, on one side he was very worried for what could happen to his friend, on the other he did trust her completely.

It took him a few second of self debating before nodding. "Only if you promise me we'll go eat chili dogs as soon as this is over. Deal?"

"That certainly sounds worser than what I'm about to go through but alright, it's a deal."

Blaze moved forward and stood next to Knuckles who had been patiently waiting. The fox and the hedgehog were looking at the scene, not moving an inch from their spots as they hoped everything would go well.

"Place your hand on the Master Emerald." The echidna instructed as he did too on the opposite side of where she was.

The cat did as she was told and put her hand on the large gem. At first, she felt nothing, then, she felt something warm coming from the emerald, it was an almost pleasant feeling as she noticed that her body was starting to feel lighter.

A second later, Blaze felt intense pain coursing through her whole body as if a huge amount of electricity was going through it.

The feline was flung back brutally, Sonic reflexively ran and caught her in the air to make sure she didn't get hurt.

The hedgehog immediately checked her pulse after seeing that her eyes weren't opening. Her breathing was normal and so was her heartbeat, everything seemed to be fine, aside from the fact that Blaze had blacked out.

* * *

><p><em>This music… Is it coming from a piano? It feels… familiar.<em>

_I remember, Mother had gotten me a private teacher to learn how to play music like her, she always said that it was the the most magnificent type of art to have been created and a needed skill for us of royal blood._

_The teacher's name was Frederic… Frederic what? I cannot remember… But I remember that he was a virtuoso with his instrument and that I loved participating in each of his lessons. _

_I think I know the name of this music. Was it… Nocturne?_

_Yes, it is._

_It was my favorite and… the last tune of his I've heard. _

_It was the morning on the day my powers appeared._

_I see… So the kitten standing before me is…_

_Myself._

_The lady watching me get tended by the maids is Mother when she was younger._

_And this place is my old bedchamber._

"_It seems you've enjoyed your morning lesson with Frederic, my daughter, your smile being as bright as the sun is the proof."_

"_Yes! Sir _ is an amazing musician, Mother."_

_I couldn't hear his full name. It's not very important but…_

"_Of course he is, it is why I chose him to tutor you after all. Ah, you are ready, do I need to remind you of our schedule today?"_

"_Thank you Mother but I know it by heart. May I ask you a question?"_

"_You may."_

"_Why are we going to see an orphanage today?"_

_Because she wanted to make herself look good in front of our people._

"_Do you not know why I am called the Great Mother by our people, my daughter?"_

"_It's because you care about every person like a real mother would, Mother."_

"_That is correct."_

_It's all about making an impression, she would say next. When our people see us, they only care about our outer appearance. _

_How I wish she had been wrong about that._

"_Mother… May I ask another question?"_

"_You may, but be fast about it for we have to go soon."_

"_Why was I named Blaze?"_

…

"_What an unusual question. Are you jealous to not share the name of a flower like princesses from neighboring lands, my daughter?"_

"_N-No… I am only curious."_

"_I shall satisfy your curiosity then, it is because you shall be a strong and fair ruler that everybody will look up to. You shall be a blaze, a powerful fire yet a kind light that will make our people follow you and make our enemies surrender. "_

"_But Mother what if… What if I'm not strong enough, or kind enough? What if our people do not accept me as their ruler?"_

"_Do not worry, my daughter, this will never happen. But know that if it does, I will always be there to support you, for I am your mother."_

…

_You liar._

* * *

><p>Blaze's eyelids slowly opened, her gaze met with the eyes of a worried blue hedgehog in a squatting position next to her, for some reason it gave her a feeling of déjà vu.<p>

"Hey, how you feeling?" He asked.

The feline went from a lying position to a sitting one, her immediate reaction was to put her right hand forward and open her palm, creating a small flame inside of it. Without much effort from her mind, the cat managed to create simple geometric shapes out of fire, such as circles and squares.

With a little more effort, she managed to create small cubes, spheres and pyramids.

"I can control my fire like before." She finally said as she looked at the hedgehog who smiled brightly.

"Great! So you're feeling better then."

"…I am." Blaze replied although she had hesitated a second, pondering on what she might just have dreamt of.

Or more like, reminisced of, as she was sure that it was one of her memories. How strange of her to remember something she had thought long forgotten.

'_Not that it matters anymore.'_

The cat looked around and saw that Tails and Knuckles were rushing toward her, just as worried as the blue hedgehog.

"Blaze! Are you okay?! Did it backfire?! What about your powers?!" Tails arrived faster than Knuckles and the little fox had panicked once he had seen Blaze unexpectedly flying away from the Master Emerald.

"I'm fine Tails, I just blacked out for a second. I'm feeling much better than before too, fire is once again under my complete control."

"Well, it could've been worse." Said Knuckles, happy that nothing bad had happened "Fire huh…"

The cat stared at the red echidna. "Are you afraid of my power?"

"Afraid? Not really. I mean if those two are with you," He said as he pointed to the fox and the hedgehog "Then you're not a bad guy, so I got nothing to fear."

'_So it's because Sonic and Tails are here, if they weren't then he too would be hostile toward me.' _"I see, in any cases, I am in your debt." Blaze bowed to show that she was truly grateful, which made Knuckles feel uncomfortable.

"Uh, just a thanks is fi-… Hold on." He immediately turned around to face back the Master Emerald he had left alone for a minute, sensing that something was amiss. "My echidna senses are tingling."

Knuckles' senses were indeed right as he saw a flying object nearing his huge precious gem.

Or more like a flying bat he knew very well.

"Argh, not her again! Don't you dare touch the Master Emerald, Rouge!" The echidna angrily shouted as he ran toward the bat who had an amused expression on her face, clearly enjoying Knuckles' reaction.

"Rouge? What is she doing here?" The feline wondered as she followed her friends.

"Oh, she's just trying to steal the Master Emerald again." Tails answered nonchalantly.

"More like she came to have fun annoying Knuckles, it's basically her second hobby after stealing stuff." The hedgehog said, feeling bored. "Hey Knux, you wanna come with us to eat chili dogs?"

« Knux » as Sonic would put it, was busy running after the bat that was flying in circles around the Master Emerald.

"Can't you see I'm busy?!"

"Oh hi big blue, how are you- Ah, Blaze!"

The bat abruptly stopped flying forward. In reaction, the echidna jumped to catch her, but right before he reached her, Rouge flew toward the cat.

Knuckles flew as well through the air, except he face planted into the dirt a meter away from his initial position.

The bat landed in front of the cat, observing her friend.

Blood stains, tears on clothes, a few bruises that were nearly gone on her face, everything confirmed that she had been in a rough fight. _'…That's strange. I'd expect more damage if she fought Shadow, especially since I saw him bruised too. Did he go easy on her?' _Rouge's eyes fell on the biggest blood stain that was on Blaze's jacket. _'…No, he didn't, so what in the world happened? I fought against her, no way she'd actually give him troubles… I need to ask Omega some questions later.'_

Blaze started to feel uncomfortable as her gaze switched from the bat that had been staring intensely at her to the echidna that still had his face in the dirt, it didn't look like he had any motivation to get up. "Um… Is he okay?" The cat said, pointing a finger at Knuckles.

"I should be asking that about you Blaze. I heard about what happened and I'm really-" The treasure hunter was interrupted by her friend that shook her head.

"Rouge, you don't have to apologize, it wasn't your fault there either."

"Even so… At least I'd like to apologize on Shadow's behalf."

"I cannot forgive somebody for attacking me so suddenly, especially if he doesn't come apologize himself." Blaze answered sternly.

"I'd say the same if I was in your case, but since I know that idiot is never going to say sorry, I might as well do it in his place." The bat said, crossing her arms.

"I understand. You are a good person, Rouge."

"Now now, are you trying to make me blush, sweetie?"

Tails had helped Knuckles up, the angry echidna quickly made his way behind the bat before clearing his throat. "If the « good person » could get out of my island and never come back, that'd be very much appreciated."

"I'm happy to see you as well, Knuckles. How have you been?"

"Fine until you happened to come."

"I see, I see, you missed me that much huh?"

"Wha- I never said that!"

"But you thought about it, I'm sure~."

"Ugh, just, get off my island." Knuckles said after putting a hand on his forehead, feeling like a headache was about to come.

"Alright, alright, in exchange I'll be taking that big jewel with me!"

"Oh no you don't!"

Rouge grinned, enjoying the echidna's reactions. "Just kidding, I'll be taking Blaze with me."

The cat looked surprised at the unexpected announcement. "Wait, why?" She asked.

"Because friends don't let friends walk around clothed like a…" The bat tried to find the correct word but failed to do so. "Like a girl that fought a hedgehog in a bad mood. Anyway, we're going shopping right away. You don't have any problems with that Big Blue?" She asked the blue hedgehog as she turned around to face him.

"Huh? Why are you asking me?" Sonic answered.

"I dunno, maybe in case you'd feel lonely without her~?"

He waved a hand as if to say that it was alright. "Nah don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Have fun you two." The blue blur answered, it didn't look like he was bothered much by Rouge's attempt to embarrass him.

The bat frowned, unhappy of the lack of reaction she got from him. "Really, you're no fun to tease anymore. I guess I have to move on to Tails now…" She said, glancing at the fox who took a step back in fear that the bat would suddenly try something funny, making Rouge smirk again. "Good reaction, I expect more from you fox boy."

"Well anyway, time for us to move, see you, you three!" The bat forcefully grabbed Blaze by the hand and dragged her with her, ignoring the cat's protests while doing so.

The trio of friend stood next to each other as they watched the other two leave.

"Sonic, is it really fine to let Blaze go like that with Rouge?" Tails wondered.

"Her power's back under control so she can handle herself, and I doubt Shadow will try to do anything to her again. Well if he does, he knows what's coming for him." His big brother answered, definitely not worried anymore for her.

"By the way I've been wanting to talk to you two." Knuckles started, his mood suddenly becoming serious. "Haven't you felt something strange these past few days?"

"Something strange?" Both Sonic and Tails said at the same time.

"Yeah, it's like the days are getting longer. Haven't you noticed?"

The hedgehog and the fox tensed up. Had Knuckles said this a week ago, they would have laughed it off by saying that guarding the Emerald all day under the sun might have been bad for his head.

Except that there was a monster capable of bending Time and Space on the loose and that they were aware that Knuckles possibly had the best grasp of feeling time as he did the exact same thing everyday without being bothered by it.

No wonder he would be able to feel that something's wrong with the flow of time.

"Not really as lots of stuff happened these days, but with what happened to Blaze then would it mean…"

"To Blaze?" The red echidna inquired, curious.

"Yeah, that happened a few days ago, when she came here." Sonic started roughly explaining what had happened to his feline friend.

"…I see, so Eggman's behind this?"

"We're… not sure. If he had started anything he would've done his usual big announcement that he was going to conquer the planet. Y'know, the one he usually ends with his evil laugh." The blue hedgehog finished.

Knuckles nodded, agreeing with his friend. "This could become a really big problem."

"We should talk about it when Blaze comes back, I just thought about something that might be important but it'd be stupid to not share it with her…" The fox said with a finger under his chin as he looked at the ground, deep in thought, before raising his head to meet the echidna's gaze. "Oh by the way Knuckles, I came with the camera device I told you of last time."

"The one you said could let us speak and see each other even if we're not close? It'd be really handy. You know how I am with technological things though, I hope you made it easy enough to use."

"We know, you Knucklehead."

"Stop calling me that, Sonic."

"Don't worry Knuckles, I'll teach you how to use the device, it's very simple! You see…" The fox proceeded to inform his friend on how to use a one button device specifically made for him.

At the same time, Tails had many thoughts coming and going into his head, some had been there for a while as small theories and had now grown in size, some of the ideas he had thought correct were slowly becoming false as he saw the flaws inside of them.

The fox decided that he would wait until Blaze was with them so that he could explain his thoughts and even though he tried to tell himself to not be too hasty and be optimist, his mind couldn't help but make the situation look worse by the minute, all thanks to Knuckles' remark about the days stretching and Sonic's remark about Eggman usually having big announcements before attacking.

The one situation he had said he thought to be impossible as it was too unlikely, the worse case that would make their upcoming fight so much harder was starting to feel the most likely and the theory that Blaze's world had been stopped in time was slowly being replaced with another, more terrible one.

He just hoped that, for once, his predictions would be wrong.


	15. Rough Criminals

_Rough Criminals_

"Preparations are complete now, are they not?"

"Indeed, Ivo, they are."

"Then, let us review our plan once more."

The two mad doctors were sitting in front of a square table in comfy chairs, each scientist having a small pile of paper sheets filled with informations along with pencils on their sides.

The one wearing red took a sheet, along with a pencil in his hand and although he did not write anything down, he tapped the table with the tip of it as if to mean that he was about to start talking.

"First, the day of Sonic's birthday, we shall hide on Angel Island four hours before the start of the day. With the echidna's sleeping pattern in hand, it will be easy for us to sneak past him and just wait for them."

The one in black nodded, taking two sheet of papers in his hands: one had a picture of a purple chameleon, the other had a picture of a black hedgehog. "Second, after taking into account Espio and Shadow's detection abilities, we will be stationed fifty meters away from where the Master Emerald resides as in theory it should be where the party takes place." The man said, staring at the picture of Shadow for a second before continuing. "Time Eater will be positioned twenty-five meters behind us, so seventy-five meters away from the Master Emerald, in case his presence might be detected more easily than ours by those two beings."

"Third, Nega Hunter will go along the « bait ». Although one of us will be using your impenetrable shields, your creation will act as extra insurance for our safety. He will also make sure that nobody escapes the place."

"Fourth, once we start our attack with the Time Eater, we have to make sure that we separate the hedgehogs, the cat and the echidna from each other once we initiate the Time Drain as those four are the biggest threats to us. Taking Blaze out first is our priority as it is highly probable that she has all of the Sol Emeralds with her."

Time Drain, an ability of the fearsome time and space bending creature that Nega and Robotnik found very recently. Although they did not understand how it exactly worked, they were very much aware of the effects it had on… Well on quite literally everything.

Once the Time Eater hit something or someone with this particular move, the target would be transformed into an impossible to break statue of stone, frozen forever in time.

Yet even though it's not exactly draining the remaining time to live of a target and thus killing them by old age in an instant, the two scientists still decided to call the phenomenon as the time of the target being eaten, or drained as Nega preferred to say, feeling like it would sound less redundant.

The ability was not perfect as it needed time to be used and the more targets that needed to be drained of their time, the longer it would take for the monster to drain the targets.

Erasing a target in its entirety was not a possible feat and rather than taking the risk of sending their opponents to another dimension and have them alive in there, knowing that there's a hint of a chance the pests might pop back in their world, they opted to go with the Time Drain.

A much more effective solution as the Eggmen were sure that there was no possible way out of it.

"Five, we have not decided yet which one of us will be the bait, and which one of them we will provoke." Robotnik continued, staring very seriously at his counterpart. "Let's decide about who we should get to move first."

"The obvious choices would be either Blaze or Shadow. Taunting Sonic to make him attack sounds difficult." The white mustached villain admitted.

"It's not that hard actually, just touching his friends will make him snap very easily. The problem is that we would have to waste the element of surprise on one of the least important targets to get him to react seriously."

Nega frowned, not liking the idea of losing the opening strike. Even with all the power they held in their hands thanks to the Time Eater's incredible abilities, the bad doctor couldn't help but try to be as cautious as possible in each step of their conquest. "Let's forget about Sonic then. So either Blaze or Shadow…"

"Let's choose which one after we review once more the flaws of our plan." Ivo said, making Nega nod in agreement. "So… We are unsure if some of Sonic's friends will be there. Those I have doubts on are as follow: Team Dark, The Chaotix and the Babylon Rogues."

"We do not know if the Time Eater's abilities will work perfectly, without side effects on us or our surroundings, if he does get attacked by the blue pest and his friends."

"We do not know if the Sol Emeralds or the Master Emerald will have any impact during the course of the fight."

"We do not know if the Time Eater will have to fight Burning Blaze and how that would impact our mission."

"Finally, we do not know if messing with time or space will make an element we are not aware of or we cannot control appear."

Although there were several other flaws that could be pointed out in their plan, those few points were their biggest worries.

At least, they were aware that Blaze was indeed in this dimension as the media easily pointed it out with their fuss over an insignificant meeting the cursed duo had.

It was a very important advantage the villains had over the heroes. Had they been unaware of Blaze's arrival, it would have made everything much more difficult for them. The last thing they wanted in their plan was a sudden surprise element that'd go against them.

"Are we being too cautious, Ivo?" Nega questioned, feeling like they might worry themselves too much for nothing.

However, having the power of the time beast in their hands required at least that much discussion and planning. Even if Nega understood that, he wanted to hear what his counterpart thought about it.

"No, we're not." Robotnik answered swiftly. "This much is necessary for such a grand operation. We will be affecting reality itself, after all."

Nega nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Now for the very last issue: Which one of us will be the « bait »?"

The most troublesome problem for the genius was who would go directly meet the party of animals. A crucial step to their plan.

Because they wanted their plan to be as successful as possible, catching their enemies when they had their guard down would make their chances of wiping out all of them in one clean attack rise tremendously.

And to get that effect, the doctor decided on making an extremely bold move.

So extreme that anyone in their right mind would call it foolish.

They decided to have one of them go by foot to the place where the party was and provoke one of the participants.

They would be completely unarmed and even with Nega Hunter hidden near to react if any of the animals try to attack the scientists, they were aware that the machine wouldn't be able to stop something that had the speed of sound from harming them.

Nor would the Molecular Shield protect them as they wouldn't be able to activate it fast enough.

No one sane would feel like that was a good idea and yet, both doctors had agreed to go with it, to make their opponents lower their guard as much as possible.

Calling them mad doctors was even more fitting now.

"Seeing as neither of us is eager to go to the front lines, how about we decide that with a game of chess?" Ivo suggested, smirking. "The loser ends up being the bait."

"Oh, what an interesting proposition! It has been so long since I have had an actual opponent on that game."

Nega took on the offer while grinning madly.

Both doctors competed in the game of chess to see which would put their live forward, and even though they were also both slightly afraid of losing, there was another emotion rising inside of them.

Thrill.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, after their little game of chess, the scientists went to continue their own preparation.<p>

Robotnik quickly did a check up of his robot army while Nega went to take care of his newest creation.

The doctor in red soon joined the one in black, curious of the beast Nega had come with.

Said beast had been placed inside Robotnik's amazingly large test chamber, a room he used mostly to test the firepower of new weapons and robots safely, although it had multiple different functions installed inside of it.

The decoration wasn't much to speak of as the ground, walls and ceiling were covered in a dull white color.

Right now, art and esthetic was not something that the egg shaped man cared about. What had caught his interest was the monstrous being that was the Nega Hunter.

Nega was currently inside of his hover pod, tending to the arm that had previously regenerated itself, fixing a few wires. He had noticed Ivo coming him and had only given him a glance and a nod as a greet before getting back to focusing on his work.

Anyone else would have found the greeting rude, but Robotnik didn't mind. He thought it was a good opportunity for him to observe thoroughly the cyborg in front of him.

Bioengineering, genetic modifications… fields the doctor in red preferred to avoid as it could lead to unnecessary complications. The doctor in black, however, thought otherwise.

Standing in a what looked to be a T stance and now illuminated with the bright lights of the room, the creature could now be examined more thoroughly than last time by Robotnik.

Covering nearly the entire body of the beast was the thin yet strong, metallic colored armor. Only where the elbows, knees and the left hand were was missing the protective gear.

The right hand had been replaced with a large, menacing energy blaster.

On the uncovered parts, you could see the midnight black fur coming from the Hunter, the good doctor was unsure if it was the natural color or if it came with the extreme modification of the creature's genes.

Talking about whatever « natural » part of the monster was left, his muscles definitely were far from being normal. Every single part of his body looked extremely developed, with the large torso being the most developed part, the arms and legs following right after.

Nega Hunter also had large shoulder pauldrons with small, short spikes coming from it. In a way, they looked similar in design to spiked maces.

The head of the creature was completely covered with a helmet, entirely hiding his face behind a visor. The only visible part was the terrifying red gleam that came from the Hunter's eyes, gleam that possibly came from upgrades given to the monster's pupils, such as infrared vision.

The creature had an unusually long tail devoid of armor with the same black fur as before on it.

Finally, the creature's feet were encased in metal armor with small spikes under them, capable of latching onto most hard surfaces easily.

At the amazing height of 6,11 meters, along with its muscles looking like they would burst from his tough armor from being so thick, calling the beast simply imposing was an understatement.

In fact, after hearing about its destructive power from Nega, if there was one word the good doctor would choose to describe this monster, it would be…

Juggernaut.

A massive, unstoppable force.

Why Nega had called it Nega Hunter instead of Egg Juggernaut or Egg-Naut puzzled the doctor in red for a second.

"I've had to make a few modifications." Nega suddenly said, catching the attention of his counterpart. "His earlier design had useless elements: Too many horns or spikes that would hinder his movements more than anything, wheels that were supposed to make him go faster but in the end slowed him down… Regular maintenances are also important."

"I see you've been taking care of him very carefully."

"Of course. There's a reason I call him my masterpiece."

Robotnik nodded and after this, the room became silent once more.

The man in red left, having nothing more to do or say to the one in black.

As Ivo wandered through the halls aimlessly, his thoughts were on the nearing mission.

They had an enormous amount of firepower at their disposition, yet Robotnik still had doubts on whether they would be successful or not.

Those pests, no matter what he threw at them, they always managed to foil his plans and defeat him.

But he never had as much power as today in the past. With him was not only his robot army plus the Time Eater, but another genius working with him and his incredible giant pet.

Losing over and over and over… Robotnik had had enough.

He wanted to see his blue rival's face distort in pain before falling to the ground. He wanted to win, he wanted to beat him and repay him in kind for all the humiliations he suffered.

They had to be successful.

They just had to.

Or at least, they had to take out either Sonic or Blaze, then meet up again to deal with the remaining animal.

They can do it.

"We will rule over reality itself and then, nobody will be able to stop us ever again." He muttered.

They will do it.

* * *

><p><em>Father. He loves me.<em>

_I will. Protect my father._

_With my sword. With my shield._

_For the glory of…_

_For the glory of…?_

_…_

_What is._

_A sword?_

_A shield?_

_A war?_

_It does not. Matter._

_Father only. He matters._

_I will. Protect._

_I swore._

_My oath._

_I am._

_I am…_

_A…_

**Unwanted memories detected. Rebooting system.**

**System has been rebooted. Commencing lockdown of memories.**

**Lockdown successful.**


End file.
